At the End of the Tunnel
by MrsJagielski
Summary: Tortured, lonely or is it just forbidden? Whatever the connection is, it's pulling Lucas and Peyton together. What they do with it could be just what they need.
1. Chapter 1

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Prologue

"What are you doing, Danny? You don't love this boy."

"He's my son."

"And his mother is dead. Last thing he needs is a father who's never been there and never wanted him in the first place. He doesn't know you. All he knows is that his mom is not coming back and he's scared to death."

"All the false parenting in the world will never make that boy yours. Lucas is my son and I'm taking him home with me. He'll have a real family and will be raised the right way. He'll have everything that neither you, nor his mother was ever able to give him. Things that you never will."

"Don't cut me out of this boy's life just because you hate me." Keith growled. "It's not fair to him. He's already lost too much."

"This isn't about you, big brother. It never has been. This is about Lucas. That boy needs stability and security. Two things that you will never be able to provide at the same time."

"You son of a bitch."

"He has a brother his age, so he won't be alone. Don't worry about Lucas, Keith. He'll be fine."

This was not happening. What cosmic evil, what serious wrong has he committed in his life for him to deserve this? The Lord wasn't supposed to give a man more than he could handle. Keith couldn't handle this. It was going to kill him.

He was losing his world. His everything. His family. First Karen, now Lucas. He was going to hell because Keith would never forgive his brother for this and he wished every evil on the man that he could think of.

"Uncle Keith!" Kneeling, he caught Lucas to his chest standing with him. He was crying. Keith felt like letting some tears go himself. He didn't want to go, and Keith didn't want to let him. He thought about, and not for the first time, taking Lucas and just going. Dan had not right. He had never been there!

Physically, Dan tried to pull the boy away, but Lucas fought. He raised holy hell, damn near breaking Dan's nose in the process. Lucas was crying so hard he shook. The little arms he had wrapped around Keith's neck wouldn't have hurt the weakest man. But they hurt him. They hurt Keith something serious, because he knew that no matter how tight the hold, they were about to be pulled apart today.

Dan stood wiping the blood from his nose. He started toward them but stopped. The look in Keith's eyes told him to stay away. If this was going to be it, his one last chance to say goodbye and make it count, he was going to have it. He hadn't had the chance with Karen. He was damn well going to have it with her son.

Kneeling back to the ground, Keith pulled Lucas's arms from around his neck. Smiling through his own pain, he spoke, "No more tears, Skywalker." At the name, Lucas stood up straight wiping the tears from his face with the back of his hand. He did his best to stop anymore tears from falling from his eyes. He sniffed, wiping his hand under his nose.

"I can't keep you here with me, Luke."

"Why?" The boy wanted to know. "I want to be with you. I don't like him. I want you to be my dad, not him."

"I want that too, kid. You will never understand how much. But that can't happen right now, Lucas."

"It'll never happen, Keith."

Ignoring that man he went on. "But you know, Lucas. You know where I'll always be. I'll never leave." He hugged his nephew for what felt like last time, and for Lucas's ears only he said, "You know all my numbers by heart."

"Don't make me go."

"Those numbers won't ever change." Keith went on. "You want to talk to me; all you have to do is pick up the phone and call." _Dan Scott, you soulless bastard_, he thought with all the hurt anger and anguish he could muster for the man who had never been his brother.

"You'll be bigger soon," Keith spoke to Lucas. "And when you are, you can come home, I promise. You know where the house is. I'll be there. I promise you, Luke. But you have to go with your dad now."

"No!" Lucas started to cry again. He didn't care if he was acting like a baby. He wanted to go home. He wanted his mom. She would keep that other man away.

Keith's eyes burned with pure hatred. "You will burn in the deepest part of hell for this, Dan Scott you hateful bastard." He hugged his nephew tight again. "I love you, Luke. Don't you ever forget that. And don't let anyone ever tell you different. Don't ever forget it." He felt the boy nod against his shoulder.

Keith jerked his wallet from his back pocket. From it he took a wallet sized photo. It was the only one that he had. It was of the three of them sitting on the steps of Karen's house. Lucas's house now. They'd been happy then. Keith put the picture in his nephew's coat pocket. "When you get scared, when you feel sad, you look at this picture, Skywalker. Her me?" Lucas nodded.

"Who loves you?"

The boy sobbed hard. "You."

"Damn right. And who else?"

"Mom who lives in heaven."

"Always. Say it."

Lucas hiccupped then ran a hand over his eyes. "Always."

-One-

He woke up to it every morning. First it was the arguing, and then it was the blaring music from the room next door.

Rolling to his back, Lucas took the earphones from his bedside. Soon his own brand of music filled his ears, drowning out all the noise around him. Looking to up at the ceiling, Lucas didn't let himself think. He didn't let himself remember. Never in this house. It was only a matter of time. Soon he would be going home. And he would never have to come back here again.

When Dan opened the door he found his son on the floor next to the bed doing sit-ups. He had those damn things in his ears. The man seriously doubted that any music traveled through them. But at least he was more respectful about it than his younger brother. Nathan blared his music the point that the whole house had a headache.

He closed the door without saying a word just as he did every morning. And, like every morning, Lucas paid the man no mind. His life had stopped when his mother had been killed and he was taking away from the only father he had ever known. It would begin again when he got to go home, Lucas told himself over and over. This place was just a pit stop. A means to an end.

He stepped out of his room at the same time that Nathan had come from his. He was his younger half-brother. Not that much younger though. Lucas hadn't cared about the dynamics of it. It was what it was. Period. He was here, Nathan was here. There was nothing either of them could do to change that. Though they had tried.

Nathan was still in the room they had shared as six year olds. Lucas had been in there up until he was about eleven. The scar he sported on his chin, and the one that Nathan carried over his eye were testament to the war that had finally made Dan Scott see that he couldn't make them into the brothers that he wanted them to be. Nathan hated him and Lucas could care less about it. He had no feelings toward the boy who was supposed to be his brother. Half-brother.

He paid him no mind, and Nathan stared after him with contempt. He didn't like the fact Lucas was living in his house, and he made no secret about it. It pissed his dad off, but he didn't care. Lucas would never be one of them. They knew it, and he knew it. The sooner he was gone and out of his life, the better.

"Do you want some breakfast, honey?"

"No thank you." Lucas replied habitually as he headed out the front door. He had nothing against Deb. She was trying, but she wasn't his mother, and she never would be. She claimed that she wasn't trying to take his mother's place, but Lucas thought differently. He could be very wrong, but he didn't feel like he was.

Besides, he at breakfast at the one place he had that was his mother's. Karens' café wasn't run by his mother anymore obviously, but the name was still the same. When he graduated, her half of the business would be his. His mother had been smart to keep what she wanted to be his in the hands of someone she trusted.

"Good morning, Lucas. Want some breakfast, babe?"

"Please." He sat up at the counter while Mama James made him a plate of his usual. Karen James and his mother had been best friends since forever. Since the womb. The woman was his godmother. The two women had gone into business together, hence the name of the café. Karens' Café.

Dan couldn't touch him here. M.J. wouldn't allow it. He had been determined to keep him from everything that had reminded him of the mother he lost. He wanted Lucas to get over her and move on to have a life without her. He was going to have to have a life without his mother regardless. But the memories would still be there. The people around him now would make sure of it. They kept Karen Roe a live for him in a way that the only snapshot he had of her never would be able to.

"He's here, you know?" Lucas looked to his side at the girl sitting next to him. Haley was M.J.'s daughter, and his best friend. She nodded toward the back of the diner. He looked that way. Sunlight lit the floor, telling him that the back door was open. "In the back lot."

Swallowing hard, Lucas looked down at his hands.

"He's not mad at you, Luke." Haley spoke softly, enveloping her friend into a tight one armed hug. "Go see him," she whispered into his ear. "You need him, and he needs you. Go." She let him go, nudging him with her shoulder.

Lucas slid from the stool and started toward the back. Stopping at the last minute, he went back to Haley catching her in his own one armed hug from behind; he kissed the top of her head. He didn't have to say the words. He was convinced that this girl could read his mind. She already knew.

He walked slowly to the back and stood at the open door. Keith was there, just like Haley had said. His back was toward the diner, almost like he wanted the sun to warm it. Shoulders that Lucas once remembered being broad enough to carry all the worries of the world on were slumped. Hunched in like he was defeated, or ready to be hit.

"Uncle Keith?"

The big man whirled around. His eyes squinted in the sunlight. Plucking the cigarette from his thin lips, he tossed it into one of the puddles the rain had created the night before.

He looked tired. The lines around his eyes were deeper than Lucas had ever remembered them. He had gray in his hair and his beard that had never been there before. Lucas hadn't cried since that night, but he felt like crying now. He had to swallow down the lump in his throat, blink back the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. He hadn't seen his uncle since the last time he had run away. That had been six years before...

_"Ah, Luke."_

"_I'm not going back there, Uncle Keith. I won't." Lucas replied adamantly. "I hate that place. I hate that man, and I hate his son. I want to kill him with my bare hands. Look what that little...look what he did to my face!" His chin was split and still bleeding from where Nathan had punched him. That was okay though, he thought. Nathan was probably still bleeding into his right eye._

_Keith shook his head. "You can't stay here, Skywalker."_

"_Stop calling me that!" Lucas yelled. "You don't care about me; you don't get to call me that."_

"_Luke,"_

"_You need someone to take care of you." He looked pointedly at the bottle of whiskey in the man's hands. Catching the look, Keith set the bottle aside. "Don't make me go, Keith." He spoke quietly. "Don't make me go away again."_

_The sound of tires crunching over the gravel drive caught their attention. Lucas looked over his shoulder to Dan who said in the driver's seat. Sunglasses hid the man's eyes. From the backseat, Nathan stared at him with open contempt. Lucas looked back to his uncle._

"_If you send me back, I will never forgive you. I won't come back to this place. Ever." He wanted to take the words back when he saw the hurt in the man's eyes. Hurt that he had put there. But Keith hadn't given him the chance._

"_Go." Was all that he said._

_Lucas's eyes narrowed. "I hate you."_

_Keith watched his nephew's retreating back as he walked away. Lucas didn't get into the car with Dan and Nathan and he hadn't expected him to. He had walked all this way to get away from them; he would damn sure walk all the way back to a place where he didn't want to be._

"Hey, Luke." The man spoke softly. Still unable to speak, Lucas only nodded. The cold air blew at his ears, making them ache. He could see his breath every time he breathed.

Keith's smile was wan. "Need a hair cut there, son." He coughed at what he said and his face twisted for just the briefest second in anguish. "Uh...um..."

"It's okay." Lucas told him. "I know you didn't mean it."

"Yes I did." Keith spoke roughly. "I meant every damn word. I wished every day since your mother told me that she was pregnant that you were mine. My boy. My son." He cleared his throat. "How you doin'?"

Lucas's answer was a jerk of his shoulder. Right now didn't matter. Not to him. All he was worried about was making it home. He wouldn't tell Keith that though. He couldn't.

"I-uh. I," the man cleared his throat once more. "I haven't touched any alcohol since the last time I saw you, Luke."

"Six years?"

"No," Keith admitted shaking his head. "Three. Last time I saw you on your birthday. You didn't know that I was there, obviously. But I was. Even with all those people there you still weren't happy."

_I'm still not happy._

"I've...uh...been fixing up our old house. The one you lived in with your mom."

_Home._

"You'll be graduating soon, and when you do the house is yours. Everything that was hers...that was Karen's will be yours. You decide to go to college; it'll all be here when you get back. If you come back."

Lucas nodded again. "That's good. That you stopped drinking in all. That's good." The man smiled.

"Still got other vices though." They were silent then. Keith ran a hand through his hair; Lucas shoved his into his pockets.

"I didn't mean it." He said. "When I told you that I hated you. I didn't mean it."

Keith nodded his head. "I know." He lied.

"When I come home," Lucas asked him. "Will you come home with me?"

-

"Peyton!" She ignored him closing his bedroom door behind her. Starting down the steps, she straightened her clothing. She was too mad to be embarrassed now. She knew that his father was watching her. He was probably laughing his ass off. She didn't know how he could breathe when he was sitting on his face.

_You will not cry now,_ she told herself. She was too mad to let herself cry now. But she wouldn't be able to stop it later.

Her head was down, so she wasn't watching where she was going. Muttering an absent "'Cuse me" she kept on her course.

"Peyton?" His mother. She didn't want to talk to Nathan's mom right now. She was as dim a broken light bulb when it came to her son.

Stepping outside of the Scott house, Peyton pulled in a breath of cold air. _Dammit,_ she thought, _left my coat in the house._ Well she wasn't about to go back to it. She knew what would happen if she did. All she had to do was get to her car. It was right there in front of her, shining in the fading sunlight.

The engine turned over just as Nathan made his way out of the house. He was clad in only a pair of the many basketball shorts he was forever wearing. As far as bodies went, Nathan was no slouch. The nipple ring that made his parents nuts was a plus, too. But just because a guy was good-looking did not make him the person to be around. She couldn't be around him right now.

_"Peyton!"_

She lifted her hand giving him the universal sign for what he could go with himself right now as her car pealed away from the curb. She watched him from the rearview mirror. Head down, hands on his hips. The setting sun shone over his half naked body. Any girl who didn't know better would drool over the site. Most of them who did still would.

Her phone rang six times before she even got three blocks away. One look told her missed calls told her that Nathan wasn't even one of them. When she dialed the number back it was answered on the first ring. _"What, is your ringer off?"_

"I was busy."

_"This is cheerleading season," the voice on the other line replied snarkily. "If I can't get in touch with my second command, what good are you? You love life comes second to his squad, P. Sawyer."_

"You know what, find another second in command."

_"Maybe I will."_

"Good luck with that." Peyton hung up before Brooke could even reply. That didn't matter to her in the least. Worrying about hurting Brooke Davis's feelings was not on her agenda at the moment. Tossing the phone onto the passenger's seat, Peyton rubbed at her forehead. She had already dealt with a little bitch today; she did not feel like dealing with _the_ bitch.

Peyton paid the phone no mind when it rang again, driving through Tree Hill's sleepy streets, she couldn't think of one single place she could go right know where'd she'd be able to shut the rest of the world out.

With the top down on her vintage classic, the wind pushed and pulled through her hair, whipping the blond curls over her face. Riding passed the river court; she glanced at the park as the passed. On impulse, she flipped one and drove back, parking her car in the lot under the near naked trees.

Shutting off the engine, she sat. The tears threatened to come, but just like every time before, she willed them back. She would not let herself cry. Not one single tear. What would it accomplish? They were just a waste of time and energy.

He moved over the court like he was playing against himself. Maybe he was. Maybe he was playing against them. Who knew? She'd never asked. When practice was over and done for the day, he was still in the gymnasium. First one on the hardwood, last one to leave it. She remembered watching him one day. He'd shot basket after basket from nearly every spot on the court. That was the first time they had talked. It had been easy. She had always been able to talk to Lucas.

He wasn't cold with her the way he was cold with most everyone else, including his father, his stepmother and his brother. She had never questioned it. Peyton had just been glad that it was there. That he was there.

Pushing out of the car, she made her way over the grass to the blacktop of the basketball court. Of course he hadn't heard her. From under the hood of his sweater, she saw the wires of his earphones. He faked right, moving left, the rubber soles of his shoes squeaked on the asphalt.

He took one step, two, shot the ball into the air. It bricked, but he knew that it would. Lucas took a running start, his feet left the ground. With one hand, he reached for the ball coming from the rim; then slammed it home in the basket. The force was big enough to shake the backboard.

The ball rolled her way and she waited. Breathing hard, he looked around for his rebound. Turning, Lucas stopped. Peyton stood on the sidelines; his ball was wedged under her blue high-tops that were decorated in her own special "Peyton" way.

He pulled the hood from over his head, taking his earphones out; he stuck them in the front pocket of his sweater. She looked cold. And like she was about to cry. It wouldn't take three guesses to figure out why. Who.

Walking toward her, he pulled the sweatshirt up over his head, taking his t-shirt with it. He caught it before he was half-naked in front of her. Not that Lucas cared. He just wasn't sure if she did. The cold air on his skin caused him to suck in a breath. Fresh goose-bumps broke out along his arms, but he didn't care. She needed to feel warm more than he did.

He pulled the sweater over her head and waited. Peyton obediently slipped her arms into the sweater, but she couldn't let herself look at him. Lucas wrapped her arms around her then. Hers moved around his waist. When she rested her head on his chest, Lucas let his eyes close. Burrowing his face in her hair, he breathed deep.

Nathan didn't deserve her. Peyton didn't deserve him. When? When was she finally going to open her eyes? What was is going to take for Peyton to see that she worth it? How long was it going to be for Peyton to see what was right there in front of her?

He hugged his arms tighter around her shoulders. Kissed her hair, her cheek, her ear. He whispered to her, telling her that everything was going to be okay. Lucas didn't know if the words were true, only that she needed to hear them. He needed to hear them, too.

Peyton turned her head, nudging her lips to his. Lucas froze. He didn't want to push. She had kissed him first, yes, but it could have been a mistake. When her lips nudged his again this time only longer, he kissed her back. Tentatively at first, then with all that he had when he knew that she was with him every step of the way. When he knew it was real.

He pushed his fingers through the softness that was her hair, balling them into loose fists around the swirling curly mass. She gripped the t-shirt at his waist with both hands. This was really happening, he thought. Sweet Mary mother of God, this was happening. He wasn't dreaming. When she nipped him, he felt it.

Peyton pulled back for all of three seconds for some adequate air then started back to kissing him again. She rose up on her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck, sliding her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. His hands move from her hair to rest at her waist.

Lucas shivered, but not from the cold. He would be stupid to expect much more from this. So he didn't. She was hurting because of Nathan. Using him to vent whatever else it was that she was feeling. He hated it, but he couldn't turn her away. He wanted her too much. He wanted her to want him too much. If this was all he got, then he would gladly take it.

This was a kiss that he would gladly take. His first ever. Maybe the only with her.


	2. Chapter 2

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

-Two-

_Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. _

Peyton pulled away so fast she damn near fell over. The cold she was feeling earlier was completely and totally gone. Hand to her mouth, her fingers lightly touched her bruised lip.

Oh this was so... her thoughts trailed off when Lucas's gaze caught her eyes.

Eyes that were usually so light they seemed electric with intensity, eyes that no one ever saw, were now so dark they looked almost black. He didn't say anything, he just looked at her. He looked at her, and Peyton didn't feel naked. She didn't feel like Lucas was trying to undress her with his eyes, and she liked that. Peyton liked that feeling. It was new. She'd never felt it before. But it all scared her.

Lucas scared her.

She couldn't stay away from him though. It was like he had this hold on her. Peyton was just barely sixteen. She wasn't supposed to be feeling this way about him, this boy, hell, _any boy_. She wasn't supposed to be feeling this strongly about anyone.

"I'm sorry-"

"I'm not."

She stared again. Chill bumps were crawling up Lucas's arms. But he didn't complain. He never complained that she knew of. And his brother was the biggest jack to him. People were constantly talking about Lucas behind his back, and still he said nothing. It was almost like he was biding his time.

"We shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."

"Why?" Lucas asked her. "Because of Nathan?"

"Yes."

"That guy is a bastard to you, Peyton. You deserve better. And better is not him. It's not Nathan. It'll never be Nathan as long as he keeps trying to be him."

"But it's you?"

"Yes." Lucas replied. "I am. I'm him. I'm better. Me, Peyton. I would never treat you the way that he does. And if you didn't think so, too you wouldn't have kissed me. You wouldn't have let me kiss you."

"That was a mistake."

"No," he spoke softly. "That right there was right." Lucas told her. "What just came out of your mouth was a cop-out. If you don't' want his because of me, then say it. I can take it. But don't hide behind that guy. Don't make it cheap."

She sighed. "Lucas,"

"What?"

She started to take the sweater off. "Here," Peyton mumbled. His hands on her arms stopped her. Peyton looked up.

"Keep it." He spoke softly.

"You need it." The air blew cold and his goose bumps had goose bumps. She didn't miss the hair that was standing up on end on his arms. Cold air blew his ash blonde hair, his cheeks and his ears were both tinged red.

"I don't." He couldn't help himself. His need to touch her was too big to battle back. Lucas consoled the ache in his body by running his hands up and down Peyton's arms. He wanted to warm her, sure. But he needed to feel her more. He wanted to do more, but she was already retreating. He didn't like it, but he had no idea what to do about it. Yet. But when he knew, she would too.

"Why'd you come here, Peyton?" He asked her. She wouldn't look at him, Lucas let his hands drop. His warmth gone, Peyton rubbed her hands briskly up her own arms combating a shudder.

Clearing her throat, she glanced up at him. The way that Lucas was looking at her made her warm all over again. "I don't know," she lied. "I needed to talk to someone. You." She admitted. "I needed to talk to you. Had I known that this was going to happen..." She let her words trail.

"You would have come anyway." He finished for her. Lucas was in now way conceited. Not in the least. But this had been coming long before Peyton had ever been thinking about dating Nathan. When her old her as much, Peyton had no reply.

He was the only one, outside of her father, who treated her like she actually mattered. Lucas knew that just as he knew that Peyton would stay with Nathan because that was what people, no, what TH High and its hallways expected.

He may wear their colors, but Lucas would never play their game. He wouldn't date who they thought that he should date. He refused to.

"You'd better go." Lucas spoke softly. He didn't want her too, but he knew that she should. If he touched her again.

"Your sweater-"

"Keep it."

"Lucas-"

"I get it, Peyton. You don't have to explain anything to me. I understand." He told her. "I understand the rules completely."

She shook her head. "It's not like that."

It wasn't crap? All of it? The hallway standings, the invisible lists, that was all good? Bullshit. Nathan treated her like his property on the worst days and like a play thing any other time. And when Peyton did tell him to go screw himself, she always went back. It was like she was afraid that she was going to be booted out of the Promised Land if she didn't.

She kept going back, and he kept staying, kept waiting. Lucas was still waiting for her. That said a lot about him. Said a lot about them.

"At least let me give you a ride home."

He shook his head. Nathan would just love that. Lucas tried not to get into confrontations with his brother. It wasn't a complete science, since abstinence wasn't exactly one-hundred percent in this case. Lucas didn't keep from getting into it with Nathan because he was afraid of him. He kept himself in check because he wasn't.

"It's just a ride, Luke."

_It's never been "just" between us_, he thought. He knew that just like she did. "He's your boyfriend, Peyton." Lucas told her. "And he hand I? We aren't eleven year olds anymore."

Her eyes dropped to the scar on his chin. "I know the story. Nathan's version of it anyway. It's cold out, Luke. If you're so afraid-"

"I'm not afraid of Nathan."

"I can drop you a block away." The cold air blew her hair over her face. Before she could push her it away, Lucas reached out to do it for her. He tucked Peyton's hair behind her ear, admiring the simple gold hoops that adorned her ear. Two of them.

"I walked here." He told her. "I can walk back."

She sighed hard in frustration dragging a hand though her hair. "You don't have to."

"Yeah, I do." Lucas nodded in the direction of her car. "Go on." He told her. But Peyton didn't move. Instead they just stared at each other, caught up again in something that neither of them could explain.

Her phone rang and the spell was broken. Lucas backed up a step as to not get caught up in what was going to happen next. He didn't want to know who was on the other line; he didn't want to hear the conversation.

"What?"

"_Why'd you leave?"_

"Gee, I don't know, Nathan. Maybe it was the company. I've told you, I don't know how many times, not to take whoever, or whatever, you're mad at out on me."

"_Look, I know that I was being a jerk. But you didn't give me a chance to apologize. How am I supposed to make it right, if you won't let me?"_

"It's been what, and hour, and you're just now calling? Now you pick up the phone to tell me that you're sorry for being an asshole? I can't tell you how refreshing it is to know where I rank with you, Nathan. Seriously. Where are you?"

"_Peyton-"_

"Never mind, I can hear all the sweat in the background. Look, I'm not in the mood for 'who was more wrong, Peyton?' So you and your half-assed apologies can kiss my ass until I'm ready to hear them. I really wished you hadn't called."

_"You_ just_ said-"_

"No girl wants to be a foregone conclusion." She cut in. "If you really thought that you were wrong, you would have been the first of the six missed calls on my phone, Nathan."

"_I tired to stop you!" _He shouted over the line. _"But you drove away. Maybe I was pissed that you didn't hear me out. Ever think of that? What exactly does that count for in your world?" _

"What exactly does it equal in yours?" Peyton countered. She heard the familiar sound of Nathan grinding his teeth.

"_You're my girlfriend,"_ his voice hissed through gritted teeth. _"Doesn't that count for anything?"_

"_Doesn't in your world, why should it in mine?"_

She watched as Lucas loaded up his gear. When he walked toward her again, Peyton held her breath. Lucas didn't speak, didn't touch her. Not really anyway. He only reached into the pocket of the sweater for his keys. He pulled out his MP3 player, too, but put it back.

When he walked away, Peyton felt her eyes close. She had to will herself not to stop him, because she knew that he would come back. She couldn't take him on again. She didn't imagine the feel of his fingers brushing her cheek. It was like a whisper in the wind, barely there, but she had felt it.

"_Peyton!"_

Her eyes came open and she snapped back, "_What?_ Dammit, Nathan, leave me alone!" She flipped the phone closed and whirled around. Her eyes hadn't been closed for more than ten seconds, but Lucas was gone.

"He's like Batman." She complained almost laughingly.

Getting out of the cold, Peyton sat in her car thinking before she started the engine.

_I understand the rules._

She hadn't liked it the least little bit when Lucas had said it. She didn't like what the words had implied. Like he wasn't good enough or something. Peyton shook her head because Lucas couldn't be more wrong. If anyone wasn't worthy, it was her. She was the one who had cheated on her boyfriend, right? Could she even call Nathan that after today? Did she want to?

_You're my girlfriend._

Peyton didn't feel like it.

Still, that was no excuse. She had kissed Lucas while she was still involved with something with his brother. That made her the one in the wrong even if what had happened on the blacktop had felt so good. So right. She touched her fingers to her lips. Nathan had never kissed her like that before. Peyton would have remembered a kiss like that from him.

_We aren't eleven year olds anymore._

She wasn't stupid enough to think that Nathan and Lucas had never fought. She didn't know if Nathan's version was the truth, but Peyton could see Lucas popping him one. The brothers couldn't stand each other, but were constantly in each other's faces whether they were at home, or on the basketball court. Coach Durham couldn't even play the both of them at the same time. They may be on the same team, but Lucas and Nathan were not teammates.

The coach was smart enough not to bounce them both. They were the only sophomores on the varsity team. Alone they were phenomenal. Together they would be unstoppable.

Nathan didn't say much about his brother, but when he did though, it was with an animosity that she didn't understand, and that he wouldn't explain beyond the fact that "Lucas didn't belong."

Today had been the first she'd ever heard Lucas talk down about Nathan. At least to her.

-

_I should have known he'd be waiting on my doorstep._ Peyton sped right passed her house and Nathan who stood on her porch waiting.

She did not feel like dealing with him right now, but she didn't have a choice. Nathan was just stubborn enough to wait for her to get home. If he didn't have to get to the gym in the next twenty-four hours.

Peyton went around the block once, and then pulled into her driveway. He was right there opening the door when she stopped her car. He held her jacket out to her. "You left this."

Having taken Luke's sweater off when she first started home, Peyton took the jacket to ward off the chill. She could still smell him. And for a second she wondered if Nathan smelled it, too. She pulled away like a guilty person. "What are you doing here, Nate?"

"Came to apologize."

She stepped past him but he followed. "Thought I told you that I didn't want to hear you half-assed apologies. I'm not in the mood for your sorry's."

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't mean it."

She highly doubted that. Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, Peyton refused to look at him. "I still haven't heard you say it." When he tired to tilt her chin up, Peyton pulled away again. Nathan sighed. "How long are you going to be mad at me this time, Peyton?"

Condescending... "Go home, Nathan."

"I do that that's it." He threatened.

He'd said those same words before the last time the fought.


	3. Chapter 3

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

-Three-

These dinners were mandatory. They talked, he ate. The quicker he did and washed his dishes, the faster he could get out of here, and into his escape.

"Makes no sense that Whitey can't play the both of you at the same time." Dan shook his dark head. He couldn't be more disappointed if he tried. As much as he pushed it, it was looking like his sons would never be brothers. Dan had to set them on opposite sides of the table it was so bad. He shook his head, only sophomores on the team and his sons were acting like embarrassments to the game. To him.

"Nathan, what happened with you and Peyton today?" His brother's mother asked. Lucas looked up from his plate to see Nathan pushing his food around his plate like a mulish four year old.

"Nothing." He muttered. "Just a fight is all. Wouldn't even let me apologize."

"There are other girls out there, son." Dan told him. "But right now skirts should not be your concern."

Lucas sat back in his chair, rubbing his eyes, he sighed. Nathan cut a glance his way. "Got something you want to share with the rest of the class, loser?"

He smirked, sliding his chair back; he tossed his napkin to the table next to his plate. Oh, yeah. Lucas had something to say, and he was damn sure that boy wonder wouldn't like any of it. He wanted Peyton and had no qualms about snatching her right from under Nathan's nose. He didn't deserve her. Lucas would treat her like she was worth something. But he wasn't going to upset Deb's table. Lucas wasn't going to disrespect her dinner. That was Nathan's job.

Looking the woman in the eye, Lucas said, "Thanks for dinner, Deb." To Dan he asked. "Can I be excused?"

"No." Dan pointed to the seat that Lucas had just vacated. "Sit." And Lucas sat. He learned a long time ago never to give them what they wanted. Dan expected a fight, wanted a fight, because that meant that he could get to him. And he would be right. Some nights, the man did.

While Nathan smirked into his plate, Deb tired to reason with her husband. "No." Dan told her. "He can sit right there until the rest of us finish." Pointing his fork at Nathan, the man went on. "Forget about girls." He told him. "You don't have time for them right now anyway. I talked to your coach today and your teachers. Your grades are slipping, and you have two choices. Ask for help," Dan jabbed the fork. "Or get some that you don't want." He finished pointing the fork in Lucas's direction.

Nathan glowered at his father, and Lucas just stared. Deb touched her son's shoulder. "You and Peyton will work it out." Nathan shrugged.

"I'm not about to go crawling back to her. She wouldn't let me apologize. Her loss."

"There are more fish in the sea, son." Dan spoke between bites. He could care less who he is son was dating. School and basketball were the tickets here. "You don't need to be involved in anything serious anyway. You're too young."

If anyone knew, it was his father, Nathan thought with a look down the table. Lucas sat there, his plate empty, lounging back in his chair, his arms folded across his chest.

Finally having enough, he pushed away from the table, Lucas cleared his plate. He ignored his brother's complaint and the finger that Dan pointed at the chair that he had just vacated. Lucas held fast. He'd had enough for the night and he told the man so.

"I'm sorry if I don't want to sit and listen to you ride your son." He continued. "I have homework to do. Excuse me."

Leaning back in his chair, smirking grin on his face, Nathan shook his head. "Only one of us can be the good son."

"Nathan!" Deb hissed. Lucas stopped in his tracks. He kept his back to them. He had pushed and he had pushed, trying to make him snap. The best defense against someone like him was to ignore him. But this...this Lucas wasn't about to let go.

He turned back to them slowly. Dan watched him not saying a word. Deb too. Nathan waited. He knew that he hit his mark. He finally broke through the iceman's armor. "Keep it up." Lucas spoke. His eyes held no emotion. They were utterly empty, and Nathan hated the splinter of fear that skittered down his spine.

"Keep pushing me, Nathan and your finally going t find out what's its like when I push back."

"I'm scared, Lucas, really."

"Alright," Dan's voice rose. "Enough."

"I'm not afraid of him, Dad."

"And I'm just biding my time." Lucas said. "You think I like living here in this house with you and him?" He nodded in Dan's direction. "I hate it here. But you already know that. I won't have to spend another minute in a family that isn't mine."

"We've tried to be, Lucas." Deb spoke quietly.

"You never let us." His father accused.

"You can't erase her!" Lucas shouted. "You never let me have anything of my mother. Nothing. You took me away from the only father that I had ever known. Never once did you try and make it easier for me. Because it's never about me. Couldn't be when everything is about you. I shouldn't have have to fight like this just to keep a piece of her. Of myself.

Dan stood. "That's enough."

"Because you say so?" Lucas challenged. "Fine. You can't take what I've already got. I won't let you. I'll be eighteen soon enough. You can go back to having just one son. I'll have no problems going back to not having you as my father." To Nathan he said, "Peyton Sawyer deserves better than you."

-

Dan had stopped them before fists could fly, but Lucas hadn't been worried. He hadn't taken back what he said either. Peyton did deserve better, and Lucas wanted to be her better. He intended to be her better.

Lying in bed that night, he couldn't sleep for thinking about her. The way she smelled, the way she felt. Kissing her had been something else entirely. He couldn't find it in himself to feel guilty about it. Not because he felt any loyalty toward his brother, but because it had felt right.

Looking out his window, he thought about going to her. Would she turn him away? He could go, or, she could come to him. Peyton still had his sweater. He hadn't let her it give it back. Would she come to him tomorrow, or would she wait?

Unable to lie there anymore, Lucas threw his covers back. The light from the night outside his window cast his half naked body into a blue hue. He felt like he was suffocating inside this room. Slipping a T-shirt over his head and a zippered jacked over his shoulders; Lucas slid opened his bedroom window climbing out on the ledge of the house. He hadn't done this in years. Just like riding a bike, he thought.

On impulse, Lucas walked to the house where he had spent his first years. He couldn't remember much, but his uncle had been right when he had said "our" house. He could remember Keith being there. Sitting with him on the porch swing reading comic books. Comic books? Lucas hadn't remembered that before. His mom used to take him out to the mail box. She used to let him open it and flip the up the red flag. They used to sit on the porch and wait for the mail man.

The letters were faint, but you could see the letters R-O-E on the side. He'd painted them there. Lucas moved up the walk and on to the porch. It was a wrap around. A memory flashed of him running the distance around, his mom hot on his tail. Laughing. He remembered her laughing.

Hand on the doorknob, he turned it and got nothing. It was locked. He couldn't remember where there was another key. If there was another key. It was too dark to look in the windows, but not caring, Lucas cupped the sides of his face over the glass on the front door, looking in.

He wasn't sure how long he sat on the porch swing before he moved away from the house and its memories. He was glad that the door was locked. He didn't want to be in there alone. He and Keith would do it together. Lucas thought about going to see him, but shot that thought down. That would be the first place that Dan would look. And he wasn't ready to see his uncle again just yet.

So he just walked. He'd come out for the air. It was cold, but nothing that he couldn't handle. Lucas kept walking until he found himself in front of a house with a single light on. Her house. Peyton's house. Her car was the only car parked in the driveway. Lucas looked at his watch, pressing on the built in light to see the time. He hoped that at three in the morning that no one was up to see what he was about to do.

He wouldn't tell her that he climbed on her car to get on to her garage. She'd kill him. Not because he could have broken his neck, but because he'd had his feet on her paint job. Lucas grunted with effort as he strained his arms pulling himself up far enough to throw a leg over the top of the garage. When he managed that, he hoisted himself the rest of the way.

He walked the eave outside the lit window and looked in.

Peyton lay on her back sleeping. One arm was flung out to hang over the bed. There was something clenched in her hand. Maybe a pen or a pencil. Her other arm was crossed low over her stomach, her head was turned to the side away from him, her hair fell over her forehead and on her cheek.

Lucas tapped on the window. Peyton stirred, but she didn't wake. He tapped again and her hand moved to push her hair out of her face. She turned on her side facing the light, reaching out with the arm that had been on her stomach to hit the snooze on her alarm clock.

He knew the moment she realized that it wasn't the clock that woke her. She dropped whatever it was she had in her hand on to the sketch pad that sat on the floor at the side of her bed. She reached out to turn out her bedside lamp, but stopped when she heard tapping again.

-

Glancing toward her window, Peyton froze. She wasn't afraid, but she knew that she should be. She was all alone in this house and there was someone outside her window. When Lucas pulled the hood from over his head, Peyton couldn't make her throat work to swallow.

A dream. This was a dream. It was a dream. It had to be. Pushing her covers aside, Peyton threw her legs over the side the bed. Standing, she shivered with the chill that washed over her. The hardwood floor under her feet was ice cold. She stood there for a moment then another, rubbing a hand up her bare arm.

Walking to the window, she unlatched the lock. Lucas never took his eyes off her. She shivered again but for another reason altogether. Letting out a shuddering breath, Peyton pulled the window up and open.

All he had to do was reach out and touch her. She wouldn't pull away from him, Lucas knew. The look in those gold-green eyes told the tale. "What are you doing here, Luke?" The slow drawl of her voice was like an aphrodisiac. Music was good. This was better.

"It's cold, Peyton." He replied softly. "Are you gonna let me in?"

She shook her head. "Lucas,"

"I couldn't sleep."

Peyton looked at him incredulously. "So you walked two city blocks to come see me?"

"No," he shook his head. "I went home first."

She frowned. "Home? Lucas I don't-"

"Are you gonna let me in?" She hesitated then stepped back rubbing her chilled hands over the gooseflesh on her arms. She turned away before he completely stood. "Your sweater's-"

The hand he put on her shoulder slowly turned her around. His palms were cold on her face. She reached for them with her own chilled fingers. Peyton meant to pull away, but she ended up only watching his eyes as Lucas's head lowered. She looked to his mouth, once, twice, and then her eyes fluttered shut.

She didn't dare try and stop the sound that bubbled in her throat at the rightness of the moment. It wasn't possessive. It didn't imply that more had to happen. But if Peyton had never felt want before, she was feeling it now. She was feeling it from him. She was getting it from Lucas.

Breathing hard, they rested their heads together. He wasn't about to apologize. Not for this. "This is so not a dream." He heard her speak. He smiled.

"Not a dream." Lucas told her. "I'm just as real as you are. So is this. Are you mad?"

"For what?"

"That I came here." She knew that she should be. Peyton had told him earlier that it shouldn't happen. And not just because of her relationship with Nathan. She was in the wrong there she knew that. They were in the wrong here, but she couldn't make herself stop it. Right now, she wanted to kiss him again.

"Why are you so good to me?"

Lucas brushed his lips across her forehead. "Someone has to be."

"Oh, thanks." They laughed together. "I want to be." He told her. "How about that?"

Stepping completely away, Peyton looked him in the face. He wasn't lying to her. Lucas wasn't hiding from her either. "What did you mean when you told me that you went home?"

He slipped his hands into his pockets. Lucas had never liked to talk about it when he was younger because he always felt like that scared six year old when he did. But his found himself talking to her anyway.

"My mom died when I was six." Lucas told her. "She was coming home from the diner and was hit by a drunk driver who ran a stop sign."

Peyton knew the story that everyone else knew. Their classmate's father was in prison now because of it. And Dan, Lucas's father, had been made out to been made out to be some kind of hero because he had taken in his son. The son he should have been taking care of in the first place, her dad still said to this day.

"When Dan came..." Lucas let his words trail off. "I had just lost my mom, and I didn't even know him. And Keith, my uncle...he had always been there. He was dad to me.

"But I didn't have a choice." He went on. "I was taken to a place where there was another boy who didn't like me for some reason, and a woman who wasn't my mom." He laughed softly. "I didn't like him either. First night there, Nathan bitched and moaned about me sleeping on his Spiderman sheets. And Deb, she tried, but she wasn't mom." Lucas shook his head. "Dan. Dan didn't want me to remember her, and he still doesn't. If it wasn't for Haley and her family..."

Peyton had since taken a seat at the foot of her bed. Lucas sat down next to her. "First time I ran away was ten days later. On my birthday. Dan had gotten me this new bike. I rode it all the way to the body shop. Uncle Keith had gotten me these _Star Wars_ action figures. Never took them out of the box. Didn't want to ruin them." He explained. "Last time I ran away was when I got this." Lucas touched the faint scar on his chin.

"Nathan had melted what my uncle had gotten for me. I don't know why he did it, and I didn't care. It was just the fact that he did. I remember being so mad I couldn't even think straight. I hit him first, and the rest was is a blur. The fight anyway. Keith turned me away that day and I never went back. Never spoke to him until today." Lucas smiled.

"Home is where I grew up with Keith and my mom. She left the house, her half of the diner. Everything that she wanted me to have is all there waiting for me. Mom was smart," he continued. "Putting everything in trust for me. Trusting my uncle and MJ to keep it all safe. Dan would have sold every last thing that he could and threw away what he couldn't."

What was she supposed to say to that? He looked so lost, so far away from where they were sitting. Lucas literally stared at nothing. Lost in his own thoughts, he was probably remembering it all over again. Peyton was sorry that she had asked. Who in their right mind would want to go back to all that? She never would.

"I'm sorry about your mom." His words startled her. Peyton's head snapped to look at him, her eyes wide. She turned away quickly when she felt the burn of tears behind her eyes. Any attempt at speaking would have been a waste, so Peyton said nothing. "I'm sorry." Lucas said again. "I just thought that you should know."

When she could, Peyton moved away. She walked back around to the side of her bed, slipping under the covers, burrowing into them.

"You want me to leave." His words weren't a question. If it was what she wanted, Lucas would go. But Peyton was going to have to open up her mouth and tell him.

He moved from the bed now, too. Pulling her chair away from her desk, he sat on it backward waiting. Her back was to him, her hair curled to the pillow behind her. Lucas watched the rise and fall of her body as she breathed.

Closing her eyes to will them away never worked, so Peyton let the tears come. She cried them silently. He wouldn't leave, and that was good, because she didn't want him too. When the worst of it was over, she wiped the wetness from her cheeks with her sheets. After letting out a shaky breath, Peyton told Lucas that she was sorry about his mother, too. She had only been ten when her mother was killed. Lucas had only been six. None of it was fair.

"Thank you."

Lucas nodded, studying his fingers. "It doesn't go away, Peyton." He told her. "The gaping hole, that loss. But, and this is going to sound really twisted, but I don't see myself without it. I can't. At least not now." He heard the squeak of the mattress springs, but didn't look up.

Peyton had rolled over. She was watching him now. "I would rather feel the loss than nothing at all. It's masochistic, I know." Lucas lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I just want her back. But that's not going to happen. I've forgotten so much already and what little I do remember is fading fast. I know that I have people, Haley and her family, my uncle," Lucas shook his head. "But that's all second hand."

"It's going to eat you alive, Lucas." He looked up and was caught in her gaze. Her eyes were sad, but they knew, too. "If you let it, that hole will swallow you. I know. It's swallowed my dad. When he comes home he's like a ghost." She shook her head. "You don't want that. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."


	4. Chapter 4

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

-Four-

Lucas closed the window behind him, but he didn't move away. Not just yet. Through the glass, he watched Peyton sleep. He wasn't in any hurry to go back to that house. Lucas may have gone out the window last night, but he wasn't going through it again this morning.

Walking the eave, he dropped down on the Sawyer garage. The cold air bit through his sweater and the nylon of his warm-ups. He was about to tempt a leap to the ground below when he caught the eye of a neighbor over the fence.

The man stood stooped over on his porch reaching for his paper. The toes of his house shoes stuck out from under his pajama pants. This robe was belted tight. The stared for a second, steam rising off the mug he held in one hand. He smiled, and then growled out a rusty laugh. It was a good sound. It made Lucas do something he hadn't done in a long time. He smiled. Just because.

Jumping down to the ground, Lucas blew into his hands. The man in his robe raised his mug, still steaming, and winked. "Good Morning." He laughed.

Yeah, great morning, Lucas thought. And it was about to get better. He'd made a decision about what would happen next in his life. He was going to have to fight for it, he knew. But that didn't concern him. What Peyton had said to him last night did.

_If you let it, that hole will swallow you._

Lucas didn't know what scared him more. The fact that he was losing what little memories he had of his mother, or that the strongest feeling he had of her, missing her, would eat him alive. He couldn't let his mother go. That was something that Lucas refused to do. But he couldn't let her absence take him away either. He wanted to remember, and for the ache to go away.

Dan was sitting on the porch steps when Lucas rounded the corner. It was like he sensed when he had stepped foot on the street. He watched as his son made his way to the house. "I thought you'd given up the whole little lost boy routine. Where were you, Lucas, huh?" Dan questioned. "Not with Keith. I looked."

He didn't lie. "I went home."

The man's jaw clenched and his eyes went hard. "This is your home."

"My home is where you took me from." He didn't yell, he didn't get angry. Here he was his father's son. He could play cool just the same as the man before him. "This place is a prison. Living in this place with a father who isn't one and a brother that I wish I didn't have...I can't do this anymore. I won't. I can't breathe here."

"I am your father-"

"Blood is blood." Lucas told him. "But that doesn't mean anything. You denied me for six years. It was only when Keith was going to raise me did you finally step up. I may have been a kid, but I knew. I knew. It took my mother dying for you to acknowledge me. You don't forget what that feels like. If you want to finally do something fatherly, let me go." Lucas said to him. "Let me go home. Let me live with Keith."

"No."

"Fine." It would be a waste of time to try and change the man's mind. Dan Scott was still punishing his brother from some unnamed sin, and he was using Lucas to do it. And he wasn't going to let him anymore. He could say no all he wanted until he was blue in the face, but Dan couldn't keep Lucas from his family. He was going back whether the man liked it or not.

"Seventeen is still underage." Dan spoke his son stepped past him into the house.

"Closer to eighteen than sixteen." He only nodded and stayed where he was even after the door was closed. Dan looked in the direction his oldest son had come. He listened to Nathan's music blare behind his closed door. When the music stopped, he glanced over his shoulder, listening hard for his sons' voices arguing. But heard nothing.

Dan still sat in the same spot ten minutes later when the door again opened. "Lucas?" His wife spoke. There was a pause, then, "Thank you." The door didn't shut again, and Dan still didn't move when Lucas stepped around him and walked down the walkway. He didn't look back. Dan watched him. He watched until he could see his son no more.

Lucas was his son. His. And if his brother thought that he was going to just take him, the man was sorely mistaken.

-

"Luke?" Keith shot off the porch of his home beside the water. "What? What is it?"

"I left." Lucas waited.

Keith looked his nephew over then nodded. "You're about to be in for it, son, but I'm behind you every step of the way. Sofa still pulls out into a couch." Lucas let out a breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding, and then started up the steps. The place needed work; they could do it together.

"Cold pizza for breakfast?"

The man scoffed. "Is there any other kind?"

-

Lucas was called into the principal's office first thing. A tall black man sat behind the desk while Dan occupied the seat across from him. "Have a seat, Lucas."

"Thank you, but I'll stand." He never looked at his father or offered any explanation.

The man stood, holding out his hand to the school official. "Thank you for your time." He spoke. "Just thought that you should be informed on the situation at hand."

"Anything the school can do to help." The other man replied. "Children should be at home, Mr. Scott."

"Glad to see that we're on the same page." Dan smiled. He turned to leave the room, stopping in front of Lucas. To him he said, "Sixteen makes you a minor, Luke. I have full custody of you until you turn eighteen. If you aren't back home tonight, expect the police to show up at Keith's before dinner. This is for you own good. Your uncle can barely take care of himself, much less you." Dan lowered his voice for only his son to hear. "Sixteen make you mine, Luke. And home is where you need to be."

"It's where I'm going."

Dan nodded. "I know."

-

"I'm sorry." Closing her locker, Peyton started down the halls like she hadn't heard the words come out of Brooke's mouth.

"I know I'm a bitch...Can be a bitch," she corrected. She moved fast, putting herself in front of Peyton halting the girl's progress. She put her hands on Peyton's shoulders as away to keep her in place. The girl was good a disappearing. "The squad is really important to me. I thought that it was really important to you, too."

"Shaking my pom-poms isn't my life, Brooke." Throwing the girl's hands off her shoulders, Peyton moved around her. "I could have really used my friend these past few days, Brooke. But I can't handle you right now. I'm not in the mood for your sorry's or your temper tantrums."

The other girl scoffed. "Now who's being a bitch?"

Her headaches came so readily now, she could almost time them. Peyton rubbed at her brow with her fingertips. "I've earned it." She said over her shoulder as she continued down the hall. "But don't worry, Davis. I'll be at practice on time today with bells on. You may not be captain, but you will be yet."

"Peyton!" The girl called to his best friend's back.

"No worries, dimples." Peyton spoke for her ears only.

Turning down the hallway, she was stopped when she saw both Scott brothers. They looked at her with the same piercing blue eyes, only different.

She hadn't spoken to Lucas since he had come in through her window. And Nathan, they hadn't spoken since she had sent him away. When the bell rang, Lucas gave her one last look, then walked away while Nathan grabbed her books, then took her hand. "Walk you to class?"

Peyton pulled her gaze away from the corner that Lucas had disappeared around. Looking up at Nathan, she nodded. They needed to talk.

-

"My Dad's gonna have my ass for skipping class." Nathan's grin was self satisfied as he slipped his hands into his pockets. "Then again, maybe not seeing as I'm off his radar now. I'm sure you've heard by now."

"Nathan-"

"It's huge, isn't it? I mean, I can let loose for maybe a day or two now that my dad is about to be so preoccupied." He laughed. "That idiot practically told my dad to kiss his ass. He'd better lap it up now, because once Dan gets on his game, Lucas-"

Lucas? "Nathan what are you talking about?"

He frowned. "Jesus, Peyton." He said. "Where have you been for the last few minutes? I would have thought you would have heard by now. You are a cheerleader and they know damn near everything before it happens." She decided to ignore that and Nathan let out a breath because of it. He was sure blowing the whole make-up deal.

"Lucas moved out." He told her. "Or is attempting to anyway." He sniggered. "I give a few days before he's back in the bedroom next door."

_I went home first._

"I saw him sneak out. Guess my dad did, too. They had it out this morning. We had it out last night." Nathan's gaze looked troubled for all of three seconds. It was like a flash. It was there, and then it was gone. "Anyway, Lucas said last night that once he turned eighteen, he was gone. He said that he was going home and that my dad could forget that he ever had him as son. But this morning, he said he was out now.

"Personally, I wouldn't mind him going back to where he came from-"

"Shut up."

The laugh caught in Nathan's throat. "What?" Who was she talking to? "Come on, Peyton. That guy doesn't belong anymore than a _MnM_ belongs in bag of _Skittles_."

"I'm sick and tired of hearing you rag on your brother. Do that around your jock buddies. Not around me. I could care less." She lied.

Nathan looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry."

Peyton's brows rose with incredulity. "Nathan Scott saying that he's sorry. Sign of the apocalypse."

"Are we about to fight?" He wanted to know. "Because that's not what I skipped class for. I'd rather be in History."

"I'm still waiting for that apology."

"I just gave you one."

"For yesterday, Nathan." He was quiet. Yesterday hadn't been one of his finest moments, but he hadn't been alone in that bedroom.

"Shouldn't you be apologizing to me, too?"

"For what?"

It was his turn to show shock. "Are you serious? Seriously, Peyton? Do you know what they call girls who pull what you pulled? A tease."

"Look. No means no, and I wasn't teasing you, dammit. I was just fine with the way that things were going until your hands stopped being sexy. I'm glad that it didn't happen."

"Okay, maybe I got a little out of hand."

Her brows rose again. "A little? Come on, let's be real about this. Let's tell the truth, be honest, Nathan. If the roles were reversed, you would have stopped, too. How dare you ask for an apology from me?" Peyton never wanted to think about that moment again, but she wasn't about to let him think that he could get away with it either.

"I thought you brought me out here for us to make-up." Before the tardy bell had rung, they been pulling out of Tree Hill High's parking lot. They were sitting at a table now inside a fast food restaurant. She stared out the window next to them, and then looked back at Nathan. He was watching her with those eyes. Lucas's eyes, but not. Waiting.

"We're not making up, Nathan."

"Peyton, look, I'm sorry about the other night."

She nodded. "Thank you for that. I really needed to hear it. I deserved to hear it. But nothing has changed. I deserve a guy who treats me better than you do."

"I can't believe this." Nathan shook his head, plowing the fingers of one hand through it as he pressed back into the seat behind him. She was dropping him.

Hell no, he wasn't about to fall apart over some girl when there were plenty of other's who would just love to be with him, to wear his jacket. To hell with Peyton Sawyer. There was hotter. "Whatever, Sawyer. There's no going back after this." He gave her a chance to take it back, but when she didn't, Nathan let her have it. "And just so you know, I've had better, can find better. I _have _better. Have a nice life."

-

"You two break it up!"

Nathan swung, and Lucas moved out of the way just in time. Whitey was barreling towards them breathing fire and huffing like a freight train. Lucas shoved hard, Nathan slammed into the padded wall behind him. Jake grabbed Lucas pushing him as far way from his brother as his could manage.

Lucas swiped the blood from his nose a second time with the back of his hand. Nathan had thrown the ball and hit him in the face. Pass my ass, the little prick had drawn first blood, and Lucas wasn't backing off until that ass was bleeding, too.

"Lucas, go get cleaned up." The coach was telling him. But Lucas ignored him, glaring at his brother, still trying to get to him. "Now!" Whitey bellowed.

Snatching off the blood stained jersey, he threw the garment into the bleachers. Jake followed him into the locker room. "You'll be alright." Lucas punched a fist into the concrete wall and felt skin of his knuckles split.

"Son of a bitch!" That was the last time Nathan caught him off guard. The last time. He wasn't playing nice with him anymore. Hell no. The gloves were off.

"Broken?"

"Huh? No. No." Lucas stepped into the shower. His shoes and blood dripped socks sat outside the shower. Clothed in only his shorts, Lucas turned on the water to as hot as he could stand and washed the blood from his face. He cleaned up his hand.

"Get cleaned up and come out of there, Scott." Whitey spoke behind him. "Jagielski, get back out there." Ten minutes later Lucas was sitting across from Coach Durham. The man rubbed a big hand over his bald head. His sad brown eyes were tired. "What am I going to do about you and your brother?"

"I don't know."

"That was a rhetorical question." The coach grimaced. "You and Nathan could be the very best I've ever coached if you would just get over this...this whatever the hell that it is going on between the two of you. You two have a future in this game. I hate to see it being handicapped."

Lucas said nothing.

"I heard you moved out of your daddy's home."

"Yes sir." Whitey nodded sagely. He had a glimpse of what the boy had been going through.

"I hope you know what your doing, Luke."

"What?" Lucas was a little confused. "You aren't going to try and talk me into going back?"

Whitey stared at the boy clearly appalled. "That would be going with the grain now wouldn't it, boy?" The big man sat back in his chair, folding his hand over his ample stomach. "I think I know why you did what you did. I won't fault you for it. You haven't been happy where you've been. Good man for doing something about it."

Lucas stared, and then nodded. "Thanks, Coach."

Whitey's face froze. Sitting forward in his seat, he pointed a blunt finger at the blonde boy in desperate need of a comb. "You want to thank me? Stop spilling blood on my court! You're done for the day. Go get that nose checked out."

-

The pain in his face was down to a dull ache by the time that Lucas hauled his aching body out of the gym. When he had left Dan's he had left it all, so he was walking home.

He was damn near through the parking lot when he heard her horn. Glancing over his shoulder, he caught the halo cast over her head in the fading sunlight. Turning around, he spied her fully. Peyton stood leaning her back against her car. Her hands were in the pockets of a leather jacket. He could just barely make out the color of her eyes.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

Lucas walked toward her, watching as she reached into her car, pulling out his sweater. She held in one hand, slapping it against her side. She held it out to him, and silently Lucas took it. Setting his bag down, he pulled the garment over his head. Breathing deep, he smelled her. The scent was faint, but it was there. Arms through the sleeves, he pulled the hood from his head. Blowing into his cupped palms, Lucas shoved them into the sweater's single pocket.

"Thanks." The touched his nose gently, wincing.

"Hurt?"

His eyes caught hers. "Little."

"You want a ride home, Luke?"

For a minute, Peyton didn't think that he was going to answer her. She fully expected him to pick up his back, turn around and walk away. But he didn't. Instead, he nodded. "Sure."

Nathan watched as the spawn lifted his bag from the street, walking around the back of her car, Peyton's car, he slipped into the passenger's side. He watched those taillights until they couldn't be seen anymore.

Slamming into his own car, Nathan sped out of the high school parking lot.


	5. Chapter 5

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Five

She looked over at him not for the first time. Lucas looked straight ahead. His hair was damp, and stuck to the nape of his neck. He'd been running his hands through it so that it stuck up on the top of his head. "Where exactly am I taking you?" She asked him, finding her gaze back on the road. "Nathan told me that you moved out of Dan's."

Lucas nodded but said nothing. He didn't have the right to be mad at her for being with Nathan, talking to Nathan, about him. About anything. He was used to people talking about him. It was a Tree Hill past time. Peyton and her boyfriend were no different.

"Luke?" He heard her speak. "Where do you want-"

"Keith's." Dan would be there looking for him later, but he still had time.

"He just let you go? Nathan-"

"I don't care what Nathan says." Lucas cut in. "I don't care what he or his father believes. I don't care."

She nodded. "Okay." When she pulled up along side his uncle's house, they both sat. Lucas couldn't move just yet. He had his hand on the door's handle, but he didn't move.

"Lucas, what's-"

"Thanks." He interrupted glancing her way. "Thanks for the ride, Peyton. I appreciate it." He slipped out of her car before she could say anything more, before he could say something that he had no business saying. She watched him until he rounded the corner. When she heard his footsteps on the porch, she backed out over the gravel of his uncle's driveway.

-

Lucas didn't go inside. Keith wasn't there. When Dan showed, and Lucas knew that he would, his uncle wouldn't have to lie when he told the man that he hadn't seen Lucas since this morning.

He stepped off the porch and was hit from the side. The air had completely left his body. Lucas felt his brain playing tag with the inside of his skull. It took all of three seconds for him to fight back. Throwing out an arm, he clocked whoever it was, knocking the guy off him. Lucas barely had time to get to his hands and knees. He shook his head hard to try and clear the cobwebs, but that just made it worse. The blow he took to his side pissed him off.

He rolled with it, coming up on his feet. When Nathan came at him a second time, Lucas was ready. He caught his brother, throwing him over his shoulder and on to the hard packed ground under his feet. All the mad he had managed to tap down earlier in the shower came back with such a primal force that later on, when he calmed down, Lucas knew would scare him. He swung and kept on swinging until someone pulled him off.

"Jesus, Luke. Stop it. Stop it!" Keith had one arm hooked under his nephew's arm, with the other across Lucas's chest, he pulled him off a bleeding Nathan.

"Let me go, Keith!" Lucas's voice roared.

"Calm down!" The man shouted. "Back off, Nathan," he warned when the other boy got to his feet, his fists clenched. "You get the hell out of here right down goddammit, or so help me, I'll let him go and he can finish the job he started on the other half of your face." Bleeding from both his nose and his mouth, Nathan took in the sight of an irate Lucas and the man holding him back. He wasn't afraid of Lucas Scott. He was nobody and that was all that mattered.

Pointing a finger at the other bloodied Scott, Nathan warned, "You stay away from my girl, you bastard, or I swear-"

"Get the hell out of here, Nathan!" Keith bellowed. He had to hold on tighter to an angry Lucas who was now trying to break free again. But Keith held on waiting until he heard the wheels of Nathan's car pull away from his property. Only when he was sure that the other boy was gone did he let his nephew go. "Luke-" he started.

He pulled away quickly, moving to the side of the house where he tossed it in the bushes that lined the side of the house. Everything in Lucas's stomach had been emptied out. He shuddered with dry heaves. When he was finally finished, he propped himself against the side of the house. He wouldn't let himself sit. If he did, Lucas knew that he would never be able to get himself back up. He turned the water on, blindly reaching for the hose attached to the faucet at the side of the house.

Holding it to his face, Lucas rinsed out his mouth, drank down a few gulps then doused his head. He shook his head weakly to get the access water off, trying not to hurt his head anymore than it already was. "You don't look so good," Keith commented from behind him. "Maybe you should let me take you to a doctor."

Lucas was too weak to object.

-

Dan had just known that Keith had done something wrong. That he was the reason that Dan had been called out of an important meeting with associates because his brother had injured his boy.

"_You want to know why Lucas is here. Your son, Nathan is why Lucas is here?"_

"_You drunk, brother?"_

"_Haven't had a drink in years, Danny. But you already know that. Nathan bounced Lucas's head off the ground and damn near kicked his ribs in. When you go home, take a good look at your son, 'cause Lucas didn't curl into a ball."_

"_I'm taking him home."_

"_Hell you are." Keith growled his voice low. "If you think that I'm going to let you take him, put him in the same house with the kid who did this to him, you're nuts. Lucas wants to go to the cops, and with his injuries, they will press charges. You don't want Nathan to have a record. Back off."_

"_Not wise to threaten me, Keith. You should know better." Dan told him. "That is my son in there. What makes you think-"_

"_Shut up, Dan. Get the hell out of here. Lucas sees you and you won't be able to save your boy from finger prints and a mug shot. I'm doing you and that ass of a son of yours a favor. That little…Lucas has a concussion and the last thing he needs is you dragging him to a place where he doesn't want to be. He won't stay. He'll jump out that damn window in the cold just to get away from you. Leave him alone. For once in your life do something for him and let Lucas be."_

Dan pulled into the driveway behind Nathan's car. He slammed into the house just as Deb came out of the kitchen. "Have you seen his face?" She hissed in outrage. Dan ignored her. He moved to the foot of the steps and bellowed for his son to show himself. When he got no answer, Dan threw the briefcase he had in his hands.

"Nathan Royal Scott! If I have to come up there, I'll make you wish you stayed in bed today."

When his son stepped out of the room, Dan saw the full extent of the boy's injuries. Keith had been right. Lucas hadn't just let Nathan swing at him. One whole side of Nathan's face was swollen. He could barely see out of one eye. He had a fat lip and his nose and mouth looked as if blood had been wiped away from them.

Nathan tired to grin but it ended up a wince. "What can I say?" He quipped. "The bastard has a nice right."

"Lucas is in the hospital with a concussion. His doctors say that his head was bounced off a hard surface. His ribs were kicked in hard enough that two were broken. You've got ten seconds to tell me what the hell you were doing at Keith's Nathan."

"He was going behind my back with my girlfriend. You think that I was just going to let that stand? You wouldn't have."

Dan charged up the steps throwing his wife's restraining hand off his shoulder. Nathan stood his ground, but he was scared to death. When his father snatched him up by his collar, his features hard, angry, stone, Nathan heart thumped like hammer beating on his chest, and he damn near pissed his pants.

"You're telling me that you damn near got yourself a record over some girl? A piece of tail! Some bitch? What the hell is the matter with you, Nathan?" He let the boy go before he did something that would land him in the back of a police cruiser. He took a few breaths trying to calm him.

"Give them to me."

"Give you what?"

"Give me the keys, Nathan. You won't be able to go out an attack anyone else. If you want to pull another punk move, you'll take the bus, or have that idiot Tim drive you."

"Dad,"

"Give-me-the-keys, Nathan." Dan said for the last time. Nathan fished them out of his pocked and reluctantly handed them over. Dan pocketed them. When he looked at his son, his eyes were filled with disgust. "I didn't raise a coward, or an idiot. I suggest you stop acting like one."

-

"Maybe you should stay overnight like the doctor suggested."

"No." Lucas shook his head gingerly. "I just want to get out of here before he comes back. Thanks for keeping him away. I wouldn't have been able deal."

"Lucas!" He winced smiling weakly at his uncle's deep laugh.

"Called M.J.?"

"She would have skinned me alive if I hadn't." The curtain snapped open around them and Haley James stood there. The worry that dominated her brown eyes only dimmed a little.

"Hey, Hales."

"Just that the heck do you think you're doing in a hospital, Lucas Scott?

"Well you see, what happened was-"

"Are you okay?"

Lucas nodded. "Doctors say I'll live."

"Don't even joke like that." She threatened weakly. "Nathan did this to you?" He thought about lying, but that would just put him in some serious mess when he was finally one hundred percent. So Lucas nodded. "Yeah," he replied, and then relayed his day's events.

_"Son of a bitch!"_

"Haley _Marion_ James!" Her mother called from outside the curtains. M.J. and Keith had left them alone to talk. The woman and squeezed every bit of information she could out of Lucas's doctors while Keith watched on in obvious amusement.

"You're coming home with us." Haley said to him. "Or at least with Keith. I don't care what the walking bottle of hair gel-"

Lucas smiled. "I'm going home with Keith, Hales."

She nodded. "Well alright then."

"Why are you so good to me, Hales?"

"You're the only brother I got that I halfway like."

-

They were silent on the way back. Lucas couldn't get to sleep because of the headache still beating on behind his temples and behind his eyes."

"Poaching in your brother's turf?"

"It's not like that." Lucas replied.

"Dangerous, Luke. You damn near killed that boy back there."

Lucas said nothing. If Keith hadn't stopped him, he didn't know what would have happened. "Thanks Keith."

"You gotta stop being so angry, Luke."

"Are you serious? I have every reason to be mad!"

"Doesn't give you reason to use a that girl-"

"I said it's not like that. Dammit!" Lucas grabbed for his head.

"Lucas…"

"I'm fine." He eased his head back to rest against the seat. "Uncle Keith, it's not like that."

"We don't have to talk about his anymore." He didn't mean to make it worse. He would die before he hurt the rest of his heart. "We don't have to, Luke."

"You need to know."

"Okay." Keith sighed. "You care about her?"

"I love her."

That gave the man pause. Love? He could believe it. Keith didn't know his nephew as well as he used to, and he was working on that. Lucas had grown up a lot since then, but he was still more like his mother than anything else.

He had never admitted it to anyone, including himself. Now that the words were out, Lucas couldn't take them back. He wouldn't. They were the truth.

"Lucas, you're young-"

"I love her, Uncle Keith." Lucas said again. "And I don't know what to do about it."

"Can't keep getting your brains kicked out over her that much is for damn sure."


	6. Chapter 6

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Six

She supposed that she should feel bad for cutting out on her education, but she didn't. It was going around school that Nathan and Lucas had finished what they had started in the gym, and Lucas had ended up in the hospital because of it. He hadn't come right out and said it, but Nathan's face screamed "you should see the other guy." And that's what she was doing.

Peyton closed her locker and nearly jumped out of her skin. "Dammit," the word hissed from between her lips. "Davis, if you weren't my hetero life mate,"

"So much for our blissful union." Brooke looked over her blonde friend, her eyes narrowed.

"Stop looking at me like I called you fat."

"How could you not tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"You neglected to let me, your very best friend since pampers, know that you called it off with your basketball loving prince. You also forgot to tell me that you were carrying on with his broodingly silent brother." Brooke grinned at her friend. "You tramp."

"It's not like that, Brooke." She, who never felt the need to explain herself or what she did to anyone, was feeling like she had to do just that. Instead, Peyton made herself keep her mouth shut. What could she say?

"Then what is it like?" Her friend questioned. Brooke counted the acts off on her fingers. "You break up Nathan who's been you boyfriend for like ever. The Scott brothers have a battle royal on the practice court. You give Lucas a ride home and Nathan finishes what he started after tearing out of the school's parking lot. Doesn't take a math guy to add it up and get one crazy hot affair that you didn't let your best bitch in on. So what the hell, Sawyer?"

"Not just a pretty face are you, Davis?"

"I so love it when those not in the know underestimate me."

"Guilty."

"I forgive you." Brooke's expression turned serious as she watched her friend. "What's going on with you, Peyton? How come I can't read you right now? Are you still mad at me?"

"I'm not mad."

"You're not?"

Peyton shrugged a shoulder. "What's the point?"

"I am sorry," Brooke murmured.

"I forgive you."

"Seriously?" She was right to be weary, her best friend just happened to be the queen of sarcasm.

Peyton gave a weak smile. "Seriously."

Brooke clapped her hands together. "Awesome. Now, do tell, where are you about to skip off too?" When she didn't answer Brooke's green-brown eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. A laugh burst from her throat. "You hussy! Afternoon delight with an injured man. Have you no shame?" She teased bumping her friend in the shoulder. "You go over there in that getup and the boy is bound to break something."

"I just need to see for myself that he's okay."

"Oh my, God, Peyton." She pulled the other cheerleader down the hall into a vacated class room. "I want the truth, woman. I want to know just what the hell is going on with you and your ex-boyfriend's brother."

"I don't know, Brooke." Her was voice clogged with an emotion that she just could not explain. "I don't know."

-

"Lucas?" He turned his face into the warm softness of the palm that cupped his face. He tired to open his eyes so that she could see her face, but his body wouldn't cooperate. Soft lips brushed across his bruised cheek, and he groaned like a man trying to wake up from a ten year dream.

"_My baby,"_ the voice continued_. "It's going to get harder. This is going to be the hardest time of your young life…"_

"Mom…" He stared to fight the sleep now. He had to see her face, talk to her. He needed to know that everything was going to be alright. He started to breath in time to the ache in his head. Then he felt a hand on his chest.

"Hey, hey. You're okay." The hand moved from his chest to his head as if feeling for a fever. "Come on; time to open your eyes, Luke." When his body finally woke, his bleary eyes opened, searching the room around him wildly. Blinking rapidly, the room came into clearer view and he searched again for her. Where was she? His voice choked out the name. Lucas started to push himself up to look for his mom, but careful hands pressed him back into the couch. "Calm down, son. You'll only hurt yourself even more."

"Mom."

"Lucas, listen-"

"Where is she, Keith? I heard her. Mom." He called for her once more.

_Sweet Jesus God,_ the man though to himself saying a prayer to help not only the boy get through this but himself as well

"Dream." Keith said. "It was a dream. You were having a dream, Lucas."

"No." He shook his head then winced. "She was here."

He was delirious, the man thought. There was no one else in the room but he and his nephew, and Keith didn't believe in ghosts, only bad memories. Bad memories and the worst nightmares. That's what Lucas was having now. A nightmare. He had experience with them. Even stone cold sober they still had the power to rock him to his very core.

They felt so real, too real.

"She was here, Keith, I swear it."

He asked all the standard questions of someone who had a concussion. Lucas answered everything right, but he still swore that he heard his mother, felt her, even if he didn't see her. She spoke to him, the boy had said, he claimed that a dead woman had touched his face. Keith wanted to take him back to the hospital, but Lucas had refused. He didn't want him to take off, and he wasn't sure that his nephew wouldn't do just that if he was afraid to go back to the hospital.

He'd fallen asleep in the recliner next to the couch. The sound of someone knocking on his door jolted him out of a faint sleep. He checked his watch. It hadn't yet been two hours but he woke Lucas up to ask the questions anyway. He was somewhat better. He said nothing more about his mother and Keith didn't have it in him to ask.

Pushing to his feet, the man went to the door. He opened it to a blonde girl in a Ravens Cheerleader uniform.

"Peyton right?" The girl nodded, shifting her sneaker clad feet. She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked up at the man with beseeching hazel eyes.

"How…"

"Come in."

She stepped around him, her eyes falling to the sleeping form of Lucas's body. His face was somewhat pinched. There were bruises on his face, a hand cradled his ribs and his breathing was somewhat shallow, like even in sleep he wouldn't allow himself to take deep, even breaths. He was hurt. He was hurt really bad and she wanted to cry. She never thought that Nathan could be capable of this. She still didn't want to think that he was because this was more than anger. This was hatred. If this had been just about her, Nathan never would have taken it this far, Peyton knew.

She looked back at the man who had let her in. Keith was watching Lucas with searching eyes. "He won't let me take him back to the hospital. He's better than he was a few days before, so that's good." He looked the girl straight in the eye and asked, "What's going on with the two of you? I only ask this because that boy cares a lot about you."

"I care about him, too."

Keith nodded. "I don't know what he's told you about all that he has been through-"

"A lot," Peyton replied quietly. "He's told me a lot." She shook her head looking back at Lucas's sleeping form. "He can't go back there. They will kill each other."

"I know that, and it sounds like you know it too. But the boy's father-"

"Is a bastard." Peyton finished. She couldn't care less if she was disrespecting the man's brother, and she had a feeling Keith Scott didn't care either. He most likely felt the same way if not worse.

"Dan Scott doesn't care about what's best for anyone but himself. If he did, Lucas wouldn't be in that house. He never would have been. Nathan shouldn't be there either, but that's his mother's fault. Deb knows how that man is. Nathan wouldn't be the way that he is if it wasn't for his father. Dan Scott should have never been allowed to have children. He ruins them. He ruins everything he touches."

"I agree. He hasn't been able to do it to Luke. And I'll damned if he gets another chance."

She turned to him. "Are you going to let him go back there?"

"Haven't you been listening, girl? Hell no, he's not going back there." Peyton nodded then trained her gaze back on Lucas.

"I was hoping to be able to talk to him, to see for myself, to hear it from him that he's okay. I have somewhere to be, but I would like to come back."

"He'll be here."

"Will you tell him that I came?"

Keith nodded. "I will."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you."

-

She knew that she would find him here. He was playing a game of one on one in the gym with Tim. It was the only game that either one of them was going to be playing tonight. Tim didn't have the grades and Whitey wasn't going to let Nathan play in this game. The smile fell from Tim's face when he saw her coming. Nudging Nathan he told him of her arrival. Peyton shoved Nathan in the chest as hard as she could.

"You bastard. You could have killed him!" She shoved him once more. "Is that what you wanted? That would make life so much easier for you, wouldn't it, Nathan!" She shoved him again.

"Peyton-"

_"Oh, you shut up, Tim!"_ She whirled on him. "You probably patted him on the back after he bragged to you about it. Do yourself a favor and get your head out of this guy's ass. You may have his back, but he damn sure doesn't have yours."

"Says the slut." Nathan finally spoke.

"Oh you have some nerve," Peyton's eyes shone with anger. "You have the nerve to accuse me of being a slut when you are the biggest whore. You've had better, you_ have_ better, remember?"

"How long have the two of you been messing around, huh Peyton? How long have you and Lucas been going on behind my back?"

"Your talk is just so damn sexy, Nathan, I wish that it were true. I wish that it was jealousy that made you go after your brother the way that you did. But it wasn't, and it would have been something else, because you've been looking for a reason to beat the hell out of Lucas for as long as I've known you. I was you excuse. Congratulations, Scott, you've finally made it. You're just like your father."

"You don't know what the hell you're taking about."

"I don't? You should be in jail for what you did, but as always, your daddy got your fat out of the fire. You're pathetic."

He laughed. "Me? Look in the mirror, sweetheart. If anyone is pathetic, it's you. Lucas? Come on. Even you can do better than that."

"Oh I don't know, Nathan. Dated you for two whole years, didn't I? Someone should black your other eye. You're a coward and you make me sick."

She was shaking all over when she finally pushed through the double doors of the gym and out into the cold night. He had fought Lucas and Lucas had fought back. She didn't know what to make of Nathan. She couldn't tell if he was sorry about what he did or not, and she should know. The two years she had spent with him weren't all bad, Peyton couldn't believe that Nathan was all bad, but that could easily change if he continued to embrace that hate. He wouldn't apologize she knew. Nathan was too much like his father for that.

-

She blinked back angry tears as she drove back to Keith Scott's home and Lucas. She would stay until he woke this time. She needed at least that much so she wouldn't go out of her mind. They could talk later if he still wanted that afterward.

Peyton swallowed hard. This was serious. Exactly how serious, she didn't know, but no boy ever made her want to compromise. No boy ever made her feel the way that she felt, not even Nathan. She couldn't think around Lucas, and what's more, she didn't want to.

When she got there, he was awake. Sitting up, his chest was bare with the blanket he had been sleeping under was wrapped haphazardly around his lower half. She saw that he wore sweats and socks and that was it. His hair was all over the place, but that was nothing new. The bruises that marred his torso made her angrier. She cursed Nathan Scott something serious. Her words had both Lucas and his uncle both laughing.

"Serves you right," Peyton fought a smile as she sat down next to him. "Laughing when you've got sore ribs. Broken?" Lucas shook his head, lying.

"But just about," he replied.

For long moments he just looked at her. He took in all that beautiful blonde curly hair, and his fingers, as sore as they were, itched to touch it. He wanted to bury his hands into that soft hair wrist deep. It always amazed him the way that her eyes could change color on him. They went from a mixture of green and gold to an almost yellow color. Peyton opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something then she closed it again. That brought his attentions to her mouth and their kiss on the basketball court.

He was going to kiss her now she knew. That look had passed over his face. His eyes went dark to almost the color of midnight; his lids dropped and his eyes kept shifting from her face to her mouth. Lucas leaned forward and she did too. The sharp breath he sucked in stopped them both. He groaned then laughed at himself quietly, easing his bruised body back to the cushions of the couch. Peyton needed more time to settle her own frazzled nerves.

When she finally looked at him, Lucas had his eyes closed. He had a hand crossed over his stomach holding his bruised side. He was so still for so long Peyton thought that he had fallen asleep. When he spoke, he startled her.

"Keith said that you were here earlier." She nodded, but his eyes were still closed so he couldn't see her. Clearing her throat, she spoke.

"Yeah, I was here." She replied. "Your fight with Nathan got around when he showed up to school looking like he had been in a prize fight." That slight twang in her voice always got to him. It made his throat go dry and his palms sweat. "What happened, Luke?"

His brow furrowed. "All I remember is being caught off guard one second, then being pulled off Nathan by Keith the next. I don't know where he came from." Lucas opened his eyes to find her looking at him. "This isn't your fault."

"I know it."

He nodded. "Good. This had been a long time coming." A knock at the door had them both looking in the sound's direction. Keith came out of the garage, wrench in his hand, and into the house ready to brawl. He opened the door quickly then stepped out closing the door behind him. They heard the raised voices between Lucas's father and uncle. He pushed himself up slowly from the couch; Peyton couldn't stop him so she helped him. She suspected that he didn't need much assistance since Lucas was grinning the whole way through the process.

She may have helped him up, but Lucas made it to the door under his own steam. Both men turned when the door behind them opened. Both were shocked to see Lucas standing there. His father took him in from head to toe, when he saw Peyton standing behind him, the man smirked.

"I guess Nathan wasn't lying."

"You watch your mouth," Lucas snapped, but he didn't deny his father's claim. "What do you want?"

"I just came to see about you. You should be in the hospital, Lucas." He pointed to his son's ribs looking at Keith. "Those should be wrapped."

"I'm fine."

"No, son, you're not." Dan turned his gaze back on Lucas. "You can barely stand."

"I said that I'm fine. Thank you for your consideration. You can go now."

"I've come to take you back with me, Luke."

"I'm not going back there." Lucas told him. "And no judge in this county would make me after what's happened." He was shaking his head, regretting the movement. "You don't want me in the same space as your son, because I can guarantee you that this will happen again and I won't be blindsided this time. The results will be a hell of a lot different."

"Where you need to be is home."

"I agree with you." The boy replied. "But that home is not with you. It never has been, and it never will be. I am going home. And I will do whatever it is that I have to do to keep away from it."


	7. Chapter 7

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Seven

"I'm starting to believe that I'm going to have to super glue you backside to one of those chairs to get you to take it easy."

"He's gone, Uncle Keith. That's all that matters." He smiled up at Haley who come bearing gifts. Setting his books on the table, she sat down next to him and pulled Lucas into a careful hug. It's what she should have done at the hospital, but had been too angry and too afraid to do. "I'm okay, Hales. I promise." He felt her nod against his shoulder and knew that she was crying. He gave her a second to compose herself.

Haley cleared her throat, wiped her eyes then reached into her own bag pulling out a brown paper bag with the café's logo on it. Lucas made a show of sniffing the air. He raised one sandy brow and eyed Haley accusingly. "Haley James, you're holding out on me."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I brought you your knowledge." She jestured toward his books.

He nodded toward what she held in her hand. "What's in the bag?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "Don't know." Then she smirked. "Smells good though don't it?"

"If I could move…"

"But you can't, so you're at my mercy."

Peyton watched the two of them together. She knew what that was like. On their good days, she had exactly that with Brooke. Blinking herself out of her reflective stupor, she rose. Haley left to do something in the kitchen so it was just the two of them. She didn't know how long she had been away, but Lucas was watching her. All of a sudden, Peyton felt nervous. She slipped her hands into the pockets of her worn leather jacket.

"Can I come back?" She asked almost hesitantly. They hadn't resolved what he was angry at her about. And, unless he brought it up, they wouldn't be getting to it today either. "I really would like to see you again, Luke." He watched her face for a moment then nodded.

She was leaving. He should stop her because they needed to talk, but Lucas knew that they would get nowhere and he didn't want to fight. "Tomorrow?" He said to her. "I'm pretty sure that this is where I'm going to be for the next 24."

"Tomorrow." She agreed. "No, you don't have to walk me out. You really should save what energy you have left." When he got up to go to the door to face down his father, anyone with eyes could see that it had taken a lot out of him. Walking back to the couch took out a whole lot more.

When he laughed, Peyton smiled partly embarrassed and because she liked the way that it sounded when he laughed. Had a boy ever made her embarrassed before? She couldn't remember.

-

He didn't care if it sapped of all that he had, he needed to do this. He felt like he would explode if he didn't touch her again and soon. He rested his forehead against hers, running his palms up and down her leather clad arms. Her hands rested on his chest.

"You should really sit back down." She spoke softy. He nodded, but Lucas' thoughts were somewhere else entirely. Cupping her face in his palms, he tilted her face upward. Her lips parted on a sigh when Lucas touched her mouth to hers.

Her bones turned to liquid. Lord, this boy could kiss, she thought. She tried to hold herself up, but it was impossible. This kiss was much different than the one they shared on the court by the water. She couldn't put her finger on what made it that way, but it was there. She could feel it.

Lucas walked her to the door, but he didn't kiss her again. But she wanted him to. And, by the way that he was looking at her, she knew that he wanted to kiss her again, too.

It made her feel light. Unable to help it, she pressed her lips to his warm cheek instead.

He waited at the window, watching until Peyton's car was completely gone. When he turned back to move toward the couch, Haley was standing there watching him. He knew that look on her face. She was piecing what she could together.

She held a hand up, stopping him before he could speak.

"First, you make me cry again, and I'll hurt you." She told him. "I'll hurt you bad. Understand?" Lucas saluted her as he slowly made his way toward the couch.

"Yes, ma'am." He replied.

"There are two reasons I can think of that would make Nathan want to kill you. One, he hates your guts. Two, he has a really small penis and that's why his girlfriend dumped him."

Lucas shouted with both pain and laughter. "Jesus, Haley."

"Do I need to kick some ass?" The expression on her face turned serious. Lucas stopped laughing and looked at her.

"This wasn't Peyton's fault, Haley." He spoke defensively. "I don't know what you've heard-"

"Same as everyone else," she replied. "The only difference is that I'm smarter. I know not to believe everything that I hear. I thought you knew. I know that your brother hates you. And I also know that Nathan Scott has more idiots hanging off his jock than there should be allowed. I've seen him with other girls in the hall just to make Peyton Sawyer jealous. It wasn't a huge leap to think that he would mess around on her just because he could."

"So you-"

"Let me finish." She cut in. "I also know that, if Nathan is anything like his father, he's a possessive so and so. But this isn't about that." When she finished speaking, Haley looked at Lucas expectantly.

"I can talk now?"

She shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Why do you think that this is not about that?"

"Good question," she grinned. "I knew my sexy brains would rub off on you."

"Haley-"

"He hasn't even tried to reconcile with Peyton."

"Maybe he doesn't want her back."

"Maybe," she nodded. "Maybe in front of his boys, to Nathan, Peyton Sawyer is just another girl, another notch on his bed post or head board…whatever. But here's the thing. He can't have her back. And not just because the rumors making their rounds in the hallways say that Nathan caught you and Peyton going at it in the showers of the boys locker room. Nice, by the way."

"I do try."

"Nathan can't have her back because Peyton doesn't want him back." Lucas sat silent, thinking on what his friend had just said, then,

"How do you know?"

"We know these things." Haley told him. "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

"How…"

"See, now you're really starting to piss me off." He laughed and Haley smiled. "I know you're supposed to be this brooding, silent guy who shows nothing. But you're a marshmallow, Luke."

_"Hey."_

"Not in a bad way." She clarified. "You feel, and it shows. I'm guessing you haven't told her."

"No."

"Are you going to?"

He shrugged a shoulder.

She knew that he was trying to be dismissive about the whole thing, but Haley knew better. Like she said, the guy was a marshmallow. He was scared. Lucas loved his mother and she died. He loved Keith and the man had been taken away from him. But that wasn't why he was afraid, or whatever that word was that guys used for fear. It was part of it, but not all. This was a different kind of love, and it was his first.

She didn't know what she thought about Peyton Sawyer, but she would figure that out soon enough. Lucas had told her more than once that he didn't need her to look after him. Well tough titty because she was going to do it anyway. He was going to be pissed, but he would get over it. If this was as serious as it looked, then she was damn sure going to make sure that the cheerleader wasn't messing around with her best friends' heart.

-

Closing her locker, Peyton felt her insides jump. She couldn't hide her reaction fast enough for Haley. She saw the other girl's eyes widen when she saw who was paying her a visit. Weariness and apprehension showed briefly before she slammed down the wall Haley had a feeling she hid behind a lot.

She nodded her head subconsciously before she spoke. "Got a minute, Sawyer? Walk with me." Haley started down the hall fully expecting the girl to follow her. He would pat herself on the back for still being on her game later.

"Haley, right?"

She raised her brows at that. "So you know my name," Haley replied. "Great. Now won't have to waste time with introductions." They stopped in the middle of the hall. People moved around them. Out of the corner of her eye she could see a hoard of girls watching them. "Lucas says that you're not behind the battle royal that went down with he and Nathan. And I believe him." She added before the girl could even fix her face to say what her brain was telling her mouth to spit out.

"Look," she went on. "He has no idea that I'm coming to you with this, and once more, I could care less because I expect, and I know, he would do the same if it were me. You care about him," Haley went on. When Peyton nodded slowly, Haley let out a breath.

This _was_ serious.

She still might have to slap a bitch, but right now, Haley didn't feel the need.

"I love that boy," she told her. "Lucas is like my brother. He's the very best person I know." Although he did have his moments when she wanted to go upside his head with something harder than the flat of her hand. "Things happen, I understand that. I think that I'm an awesome judge of character, and I would say that you're stronger than most. So you'll be able to take this and not feel threatened. Much."

"You gonna say what needs to be said, or are you still leading up to it?"

Haley flashed a quick grin. Well alright, she thought. A fellow smart-ass. She could get behind that. She could work with this.

"You'd better not hurt him." Haley spoke. "If this thing, whatever it is, is just a game to mess with Luke or to get back at your dickhead ex-boyfriend, then you had better call it off, and call it off right now, because that boy has been though too much to be messed with like this."

"Who do you think you are?"

"I just told you." Haley's eyes went hot at the same time Peyton's flared to life. "I have no problem kicking your ass or any other cheerleader ass," she said with a look toward the girls a few feet away. They were listening so hard that they would fall over if there was a pause. "If they decide to get in my way." Haley finished. "That's who I am. I'm the bitch who's gonna go diva ape shit, if it turns out that you're playing Luke. I don't think that you are, but you still need to know where I stand."

"Well thank you so much," Peyton snapped snidely. "You're Lucas' friend and he's probably very lucky to have you. But don't you threaten me." She warned her. "I don't like it. Let me tell you a few things, Haley James. You haven't the faintest idea about what's going on between me and Lucas." She didn't even know what was going on between them. "I'm not paying him." Peyton went on. "I'm not playing anyone."

Bullshit, Haley thought. Peyton Sawyer was playing someone alright. She was playing the person she saw when she looked in the mirror.


	8. Chapter 8

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Eight

"I really wish that you would reconsider."

Dan watched as Lucas slowly moved around his room. He believed his son when he said that putting he and Nathan back under the same roof would be more of the same in terms of fists and bruises.

He wished that he could say that it was just because of that girl. It wasn't. But there was still enough determination left in the man that he wanted to put his foot down and make Lucas say anyway.

But nothing would come of that. Dan didn't want to see his son locked up for being a runaway anymore than he wanted to see Nathan put behind bars for assault.

He would see Lucas back in this house where he belonged. Whatever he had to do, Dan would see his son back under this roof.

Lucas said nothing to his father's words. Reconsider, hell. His first mistake had been knocking on the door. Had he just walked him, Nathan wouldn't have had the satisfaction of slamming the door in his face. He wouldn't have had to battle back the anger that wanted to jump out and take Nathan's head off.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Lucas."

"It's the way it is, Dan." He replied. "You did your good deed when my mom died. You took in the kid that you never wanted in the first place. Town gave you your 'medal'."

"That's not why I brought you here."

"Okay."

"Your mother wouldn't let me have anything to do with you."

"Don't you dare," Lucas spoke quietly. "Don't you dare blame my mother. Don't you say her name, don't you think about her because you have no right. If you wanted to be there," he said to the man. "You would have been. So don't you dare blame my mom."

"I'm your father."

"You say that like it's supposed to mean something." Lucas turned to look at him. "I don't want you to be. There. I said it. I don't want you to be my father. I don't want to be your son. I don't want to live in this house, be in the house one more second longer." Lucas hefted his bag over his shoulder, ignoring the throbbing pain that moved though him as his body adjusted to the weight.

The bag was full of clothes. His clothes. Clothes that he had bought with his own money. A part of him knew that he was being harsh, maybe unreasonable, but Lucas didn't care. Deb was waiting at the bottom of the stairs and, Lucas imagined, Nathan was listening behind his closed door. He thanked the woman one last time. Deb had never wrong him, and she was right when she said that she had tried.

Keith was waiting for him outside. Leaned up against the passenger's side of his vintage Thunderbird, his arms were crossed over his chest. Though it was cold out, the sun shone brightly. Keith wore sunglasses over his eyes. His open camelhair jacket warded off the chill. He looked every bit the badass Lucas remembered him being when he was a kid.

He tossed his nephew's bag into the backseat and watched as Lucas slowly folded himself into the car. He glanced over his shoulder briefly when he felt his brother's shadow fall over him. Keith stood.

"What the hell do you think that you're doin?"

"Taking Lucas home, Dan."

"His home is here."

"His home has never been here, Danny, and you damn well know it."

"Bruises heal."

"And pictures say a thousand words. Leave him alone. That's what he needs right now. And more importantly, that's what he wants. He needs to be able to rest. He needs to be away from this house, his brother and most of all, you. You're going to give him that."

"Or else?"

Keith laughed softly, shaking his head. He took his glasses from his face so he could look the other man in the eye when he spoke to him. "I don't want to use my nephew to make you stay away from Lucas," Keith said. "But I'll do what I have to do to back you up, and keep you backed the hell off. Understand?"

Later, Dan sat in his office building. The grip he had on the almost empty high ball glass was enough to damn near shatter the glass entirely. Every time the thought about what had happened today, he wanted to put his fist through something.

Lucas was his son, and Keith had no right. Just because the son of a bitch thought he could play house with his leftovers didn't mean that that entitled that bastard to his son.

"Hey, Dad?" Dan looked up to see Nathan standing in the door way to his office. "Want to shoot around some before dinner? Mom says that we have 20."

He took in his youngest son. The bruises on his face were fading, and he could finally see out of both his eyes.

They, the three of them, should be shooting around before dinner. Lucas should be here. He would be damned to let Keith have what was his.

He would be damned.

Standing, Dan set his glass on the cherry wood of his desk. He rubbed a hand over the top of his son's head as he followed the boy out of the room. As they walked thought the sliding glass door in the kitchen out into the yard, Dan thought again that they should all be shooting around.

It should be the three of them.

-

He was sitting out on the porch when her car pulled up. She stopped, but she didn't get out. Not right away. Peyton watched her from the driver's seat, and Lucas watched her right back.

When she finally did push driver's side door open, Lucas didn't take his eyes off her. He liked the way the setting sun bounced off her hair burning it to almost gold. He liked the look of the leather jacket that she wore and the way that her skirt showed off her legs.

He was a guy after all.

She walked around the hood of her car and leaned up against the passenger's side the car much like Keith had earlier.

"Great legs." He spoke. It was more of an absent minded thought spoken allowed that only he himself could hear.

Peyton unconsciously tilted her head to the side and asked, "You wanna go for a ride?"

Slowly Lucas pulled himself up from the steps of his uncle's home. Peyton pushed away from her car and waited as he made his way toward her. The gray and black baseball shirt he wore was un-tucked from jeans that had obviously seen many washings. He looked really good in them. The shirt showed off what she thought would be a beautiful chest.

She had never had the urge to do so before, but Peyton wanted to draw him. She wanted to draw him the way that he looked right now. The slight wind blew his hair over his forehead. Lucas still walked with his hand pressed to his side, but he looked better now than the first time she had come to see him.

"Where to?" He asked.

Peyton opened the door for him. She kept her hand on it as she waited for him to get in. "Around." She replied. "Why do we have to go anywhere?"

Lucas stared into her eyes. How could he not? They were just so damn pretty. When he smiled slowly, she blushed tucking the curly strands of her hair behind her ears.

"You should wear skirts all the time, Peyton." Lucas told her. "You make them look good. Real good."

"That a compliment or a come on?"

"Do I need one?"

"One what?"

"A come on?"

She was silent. Lucas waited for her to answer. He watched her throat work as she swallowed. "No," she finally answered, her voice trailing off to a whisper. "You don't."

He reached out a hand, rubbing strands of her hair's softness between his fingers. He traced his thumb along her jaw and had the pleasure of seeing her eyes go heavy.

Liquid eyes.

Lucas lowered himself into her car, gritting his teeth against the ached that still throbbed on his side. "You okay?" She asked.

"Take me for a ride Peyton." He said to her. She stood there for all of as second before the door shut and she was moving around the hood of the car. When she slid in beside him, her sent washed over him. Closing his eyes, Lucas took a deep breath, leaning head back against the head rest of the seat.

Strawberries, vanilla and something else. Something that Lucas couldn't put his finger on. His eyes opened when he felt her eyes on him. "I'm ready when you are." He spoke softly.

Nodding, Peyton leaned forward, starting her car. Keith watched the car pull away from the curb.

-

It's seemed like most of the rightness that had ever happened for either one of them was in a time before. The times after seemed so bad, it was like goodness would never happen for them, or to them, again.

Peyton wanted to go back to the goodness today. And for the first time she didn't want to be alone when she went. So they drove. They drove past the high school, the Rivercourt, finally stopping at the near the bridge.

Her bridge.

She and her mother had come here a few weeks before her mom had died. It should have been sad for her to be here right now. And other times it had been, but it wasn't now.

As it had turned out, the place that Peyton had deemed hers had been her parents' too.

They didn't hold hands. They didn't have to, to be connected. They walked along sparse grass under the bridge and sat down on the concrete. There wasn't any water flowing now, but that would change when it got warmer out. Peyton liked the quite in the cold. She liked the sound of the water in her ears when she sat even better.

"What's this?" He asked her.

"Right up there," she pointed to the bridge. "Is where my father asked my mother to marry him." Lucas didn't look to the place that she was pointing out. Instead he watched her. This was big he knew. And he wanted to watch her face, her eyes when she told him more.

"I don't have a lot of good that happens to me, Lucas." She went on. "And sometimes, I like it that way, I would rather it be that way than any other way so that I don't get my hopes up only to be let down later when life kicks me in the face."

"I don't have a lot of good that happens to me either." Lucas told her. "And what good I do have, it always seems like I have to fight to the death for." He shook his head. "It shouldn't be like that."

"But it is." Peyton said to him. "Which is why I-"

"What?"

She looked at him. "I wanted to show you this." She got out. "I'm the last person who should walking about preaching sunshine and rainbows,"

"Thank you."

"It's not all bad, Luke." She said. "I mean it can't be all the time."

"I'm not so sure I believe that. It feels bad all the time."

"Don't you have a place?" She asked him. "Isn't there some place you go when things get to be too much, where things were so good that you had to take a break from it, just for a second to stand back and breathe it all in?"

He hadn't though so until she said the words.

"If I asked you to come home with me," Lucas said to her. "Would you hold it against me?"

-

He ran his fingers over the notches carved in the wood on the side of the house. "I remember this," he murmured to himself. Lucas's mind flashed back to the warm days when Keith would stand him up against this part of the house and measure how tall he was into the wood with his pocket knife.

"_Keep growing like this, Skywalker, and you'll be bigger than me."_

"_Bigger 'n the world?"_

"_Than the world," His mother corrected._

"_Bigger 'n the world." Keith winked then smiled._

Their foot falls sounded on the old wood as they walked across the old porch that wrapped around the house. He pointed out to the grass near the trees. He could still see his mom kneeling there with that ugly flop hat on her head digging in the dirt.

"That's where my mom tried to start a garden." His heart was pounding hard in his chest because he was _remembering_. Memories that Lucas had thought were long gone, forgotten from his young mind, were so clear in his head it was like they had just happened yesterday.

"Keith was going to build me a tree house in that tree." Lucas leaned his body into one of the wooden beams on the porch. He was holding a hand to his side again. "I didn't come here when I was younger because I was mad." He spoke quietly. "I was mad at my mom for leaving me, and I was mad a Keith for letting Dan take me away." He rubbed his knuckles under his jaw. "I didn't come back when I was older because I didn't want Dan or Nathan or Keith for find me here. That night I came to see you was the first time I went home. But I nver got this far. I couldn't. Wouldn't let myself, I guess."

Peyton slid her hands into her coat pockets. "And now?" She asked him.

Lucas looked out to the lawn for so long, Peyton didn't think that she was going to get an answer. He looked at her over his shoulder. "Now," he replied. "Now, I don't ever want to leave this place again."


	9. Chapter 9

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Nine

"You can be pissed all you want to."

Lucas looked up from the book that he had been trying, but failing miserably to read. He couldn't concentrate on anything. The day with Peyton, and the memories that had come back still filled his mind.

He dreamed about his mother again last night.

At least that was what Keith had told him when the man had come to "wake" Lucas from a "dream" where he had been calling for his mom.

"_You have to be the strong one."_ She'd said.

Bad was coming and he was going to have to save Keith from himself.

Lucas had no idea what that meant, but he'd begun to watch his uncle very closely. The man looked terrible. Like he hadn't been getting enough sleep. Lucas knew that Keith hadn't been drinking because he had promised never to touch another drop. Lucas believed him, and Keith didn't lie.

Not to him.

"Be pissed about what?"

"What?"

"Pissed about what?" He repeated. Haley stared at him like Lucas had he had two heads. Then realization hit her.

He didn't know whether to intrigued or scared to death at the look that passed over Haley's face. She sat down next to him on the couch, tucking her hair behind her ears, she prepared herself.

"Okay," she said. "I've got something to tell you."

"Something that's going to make me pissed?"

"Possibly."

"What did you do, Hales?"

She told him. Haley told him everything and left nothing out. She wouldn't lie to Lucas. Even if sometimes it maybe for his own good. Lucas had never lied to her that she knew of and Haley was sure that she didn't want to know if he ever had.

Lucas wrapped his brain around what Haley had just told him. He knew that he really should be pissed at her like she had expected. He didn't need Haley to fight his battles whether they were there or not.

She had called Peyton out in the halls and told her in so many words that she would kick her ass if she found out that Peyton was playing him. Lucas didn't know whether to be pissed or to laugh his ass off about Peyton and Haley squaring off in the halls. No, he didn't need Haley to fight his battles for him, but he was glad that she always had his back.

Peyton wasn't playing him, Lucas was sure. He didn't know how he knew it for sure, he just did. Did she love him? He had no clue. But if she did, he would take it and give it right back. He found himself wondering if Keith had felt the same way about his mother.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

Haley wanted to slap the mess out of him. "Did you not hear a word I just said to you?"

He grinned. "I heard." Lucas kissed her cheek. "Thanks, Haley," he told her. "I appreciate you looking after me and all. But it's not like that."

"I do."

"Then why?"

"You weren't listening, you butthead." Haley swatted him in a place she was fairly sure he wasn't bruised. "I just wanted her to know that if I was wrong about her, if you were wrong about her, then I was going to rip out all that curly blonde hair by the roots and kick Peyton Sawyer's pom-pom shaking, rah-rahing, cheerleading ass up and down Tree Hill's hallways."

"Sure this isn't about her being a cheerleader?" Lucas deadpanned.

"This is about family." Haley told him. "And you're mine. Whether you like it or not."

"I love you, Haley James." He told her. "Best almost sister I've ever had."

"Will have period."

"My mistake."

"Apology accepted. And I love you back."

-

"_God,_ why don't the two of you just strip nekkid in the halls and go all Pay-Per-View slutty?" Brooke grinned.

It was like these two had body heat radar when it came to each other or something. And she knew that look on her friend's face. Sleepy intensity that wasn't sleepy in the least. Not to mention the way that Lucas Scott was looking at her gal pal with those laser blue eyes was heated enough to make every girl in a twenty mile radius need a portable fan and a smoke.

"Give in already." Brooke fanned herself. "You two are setting the rest of the planet on edge. And there aren't enough condoms in the world for every one to participate in a national all day nooner. Goddamn woman."

Unconsciously, Peyton grinned as she walked passed her friend. Brooke's eyes got big. "Bitch," she accused. "You're holding out on me!" She grabbed Peyton's arm turning her around. "Spill dammit."

"We haven't had sex, Brooke."

"That's the biggest lie in America, Peyton Sawyer. Ooohh, that's such a damn lie! A bald-head one."

"Not."

Brooke narrowed her eyes. "Then explain the smirk." Brooke demanded. "That's the 'I know something you don't know/I'm getting some' smirk if I ever saw it. Something's up because if even if you were being serviced regularly you wouldn't smirk. _You_ don't smirk, not even to be bitchy. Which is a mystery in itself. What self respecting chick doesn't smirk?"

"Getting all that from my lips, huh?"

She wasn't going to tell. Peyton wasn't going to say a damn word and Brooke wanted to stamp her foot like a petulant three year old. She wanted the dirt dammit. She needed it, fed on it. She was going through frickin' withdrawals...then it came to her…

"He can kiss!" Okay, she could maybe buy that Peyton wasn't sexin', but she was damn well kissin'. When a boy had a mouth like that it was hard not to. Her eyes danced. "That's all the two of you have done and you're walking around smiling all stupid like that?" Her friend raised what had to be an unconscious eyebrow and did the smile thing again.

Lucas Scott made her friend smile. Brooke was going to have shake his hand, give him a card, something. It had been a long damn time since she had seen something that genuine that wasn't hate or anger on Peyton's face.

"Shit." Brooke stopped in the hall her mind catching on something else entirely. "Has he got any other brothers besides the asshole that I can give a call? Because, damn, no boy has ever kissed me into a smirk and I want in."

"Something's are personal, Brooke."

"Peyton Sawyer, your deodorant just told on you, because your secret it out. This is more than just kissing and it's got you spooked. Spooked, but not scared enough to run."

No, not scared enough to run, Peyton thought. But dumb enough to want more without knowing what the hell was behind that next door.

Yeah, she wanted Lucas. She wanted him badly, but she liked the way that things were with them now. Would sex mess it up? When he kissed her the way that he did, she didn't care. Then there were the times when he looked at her, and she didn't care, when he smiled at her, and she didn't care. Peyton didn't want to lose that with him. If they jumped to that next step, would she still get the smiles and the looks and the oh my god kisses? She could say that Lucas wasn't like most guys, but he was still a guy.

If any boy could hurt her heart, Lucas was that boy. He would be the guy to break her heart in two.

-

He smelled her before her shadow fell over him. He was sitting propped up against a tree with a book in his lap. Resting, his eyes were closed.

"I have to tell you, Peyton Sawyer, you smell really, really good."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should," his mouth curved softly. "You really, really should. Blushes look good on you too."

"Your eyes are closed."

"Doesn't mean that I can't see you. You wanna sit down next to me?"

What was it about him? She wondered not for the first time. Who was that smooth? She'd heard the lines before, and Peyton hadn't been lying when she said that Lucas hadn't needed them.

If she hadn't broken if off with Nathan, Peyton was absolutely positive that she would have gone behind Nathan's back with her boyfriend's brother.

And it would have been more than just a few kisses.

If you could even call them that because those "kisses" had been absolutely amazing.

"I didn't freak you out the other day did I?" He asked her. Peyton took him up on his invitation and sat down next to him. Every time Lucas looked at her, her knees felt like they wanted to fall to the bottoms of her feet.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Lucas touched a finger to her cheek. "I want to thank you for that day, Peyton," he told her. "All those memories that I thought were long gone came back to me. So thank you. More than I can say, thank you."

She nodded, unable to speak. He was going to kiss her.

_"Damn baby, did your cool points just drop."_

Both their gazes swung to Tim Smith. He wasn't looking at Peyton, but at Lucas. There was something in his eyes that Lucas had seen before. Hate. It was the same thing that he saw in Nathan's eyes, but for some reason, there was something about the hate he felt coming from Tim.

"I'm just wondering what it is about you, Scott, that has everybody talking. Her mom's dead, same as yours, yet they don't talk about Peyton's tragedy nearly as much as they talk about yours."

"I don't care what 'they' say." Lucas growled between clenched teeth. He had to battle the anger that had begun to rise in him. "But if you speak about my mother again, I'll break every bone in your body. My mother has nothing to do with you."

"Or maybe it's because your dad is Tree Hill High's sweetheart. The man who finally took in his bastard son only after the kid's mother was killed."

"Get out of here, Tim." Peyton told him. Both she and Lucas were on their feet now. She placed herself in front of Lucas a ways. He wasn't holding his side anymore, but it would be real easy for him to be hurt again. But Lucas's side wasn't what Peyton was most worried about. It was his anger, and Tim Smith was spoiling for a fight.

Why?

Why Lucas?

"Doing Nathan's dirty work?" Lucas taunted.

"I don't need Nathan to have words with you. It doesn't matter how good you are at the game or who you date," he shot a speaking glance at Peyton. "You're gossip, Scott. That's all you are, and that's all that you ever will be."

"And what are you?" He challenged. "Who are you, and why do you think that what you say matters the least bit to me?"

-

"Let's play a game, Nate." Lucas asked from behind his brother after practice. He didn't wait for Nathan's reply.

"Let's see how many punk moves you can make on me before the month is out." Nathan barely glanced over his shoulder. Lucas kneeled down now to speak into his ear. "The next time you have something to say to me, how about you take your balls out of your pocket, stand up like a man, and stay them? Unless, that is, you're waiting for me to turn my back."

"I don't need a handicap to sink you."

"Yeah, you think so?"

"I know so."

"Your track record speaks different. Don't you ever speak about my mother again. Not through your friends or through anyone else. Do it again, and I promise you, you'll wish that you hadn't." His voice growled. When he stood, Lucas felt the eyes on his back. He paid them no mind. Adjusting the back on bag on his shoulder, he pushed the doors of the locker room open so hard they slammed into and bounced off the walls behind them.


	10. Chapter 10

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Ten

The urge to be here had him skipping his last three classes of the day. He needed to be home. This time around he had a key. For a long time, Lucas stood on the porch afraid to go inside. He knew, knew, that when he was seeing his mom it was a dream. It had to be, right?

He was afraid that if he went inside she would be there smiling at him. He would be six years old again, and the house would smell good with food. Then he would blink and it would all be gone. His mom would be gone, and he would still have that hole inside him.

Even if it wasn't as huge in him as it had been before.

Finally Lucas fit the key into the lock. Turning the knob, he swung the door open slowly, silently. The hinges had been greased he knew. He wouldn't let the house go, said that he had been looking after it for Luke.

The furniture was covered with white sheets. Lucas pulled the sheet from the couch first. It was green in color. He remembered that it folding out into a bed and he and Haley had used to sleep on it when they were younger.

"_Stop hoggin', Lucas! There's like a million years of space over there."_

"_This is my spot, woman."_

"_Woman?" Haley James put her small hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes Luke's way. "Did you just call me woman?"_

It had been their game.

"_Sumpthin' wrong with your hearin'?"_

"_No. But your mouth got unplugged from your brains. Wanna see how fast your lip can go fat? Say that word again," Haley made a fist and waved it under his nose. "And I'll erase the letter 'w' from your alphabet."_

They had heard Keith and his mom say those exact say words so many times, that the two of them had picked it up from themselves. They used to laugh themselves into heart attacks every time the words came out of their mouths.

Lucas pulled the sheet from over the chair next.

It was old, scarred and patched up just the same as the couch had been when he was younger.

Keith used to read him stories from that chair. Lucas remembered the words coming out of the big man's mouth, sure. But what he really remembered was the way that the words had sounded in the man's chest. Like echoes inside a big bear.

It was probably why he liked to read so much.

Lucas rubbed the heel of his hand over his heart and kept going. He wanted to see what else his mind really remembered. He wanted to see if his mother would show up when he turned around that next corner.

-

Dan stared lividly at the papers he held in his hands. He'd just been served by his own son.

Emancipation? _Emancipation?_ Dan didn't know who he was angrier with, Lucas or Keith. Did they really think that he was just going to sit back and let this happen? That he was going to let his son go so that Keith could adopt him?

Hell fucking no. He would kill the bastard first. Dan would string Keith Scott from his sac before he let that son of a bitch take his boy.

_His._

He would never let his brother have his son. Someone would be dead first.

Dan ripped the papers in his hand in half as he stood. His wife appeared in the doorway. She blanched at the rage on the man's face. "Dan?"

"Not now!" He barked pushing past her. He stopped in the foyer, closing his eyes. "You and Nathan eat without me," he told her. "I won't be home for dinner."

"Where are you going?"

"To take care of some unfinished business." When he left, Dan slammed the door so hard behind him that Deb jumped.

-

"I should have beat his ass right then and there." Nathan mused. Tim didn't reply. He new that Nathan was just talking to hear himself speak.

"But when Whitey would have benched me." He went on taking another cold one out of the cooler. They'd swiped the beer from Tim's dad. He wouldn't know it was missing. And if the man did, he would think that it had been Tim's older brother. "Bastard's already taken enough from me. He's not getting my game." Nathan stared hard at the bottle in his hand.

"Who we talking about, Nate?" Tim finally asked. "Your dad or Peyton?" Nathan's hand tightened on the brown glass bottle.

"Both," he replied, then took a long pull of the cold brew. "I'm going to pay him back, Tim. I'm going to pay him back for all of it. And when I'm through, he'll have nothing left." Absently, Nathan rubbed a thumb over the scar in the eyebrow.

He was going to make Lucas pay for all of it.

-

"_Can I ask you sumpthin'?"_

"_You know you can ask me anything, Lucas." Keith rubbed his hand over the top of the boy's head._

"_Will you be my dad?" He whispered._

_Keith sucked in a breath._

"_I don't want nothin' else for my birthday 'cept that, Uncle Keith." Lucas told him. "I want you to be my dad."_

"_I want to be your dad, Skywalker." Keith managed when he finally got his breath. "I want to be your dad more than anything on this Earth."_

Lucas sat on the floor of his old bedroom, his head leaned back against the wall behind him.

Nothing had changed. His bed was still unmade, his clothes still on the floor. Everything was covered with dust, not cobwebs. Keith had been here, Lucas knew. But everything still looked the same.

Hot tears burned behind his closed eye lids. Lucas remembered that day without even having to come into this room. He didn't even have to come into the house. That night he had asked Keith to be his father was the night that his mother had been killed. His world had been blown apart that night. And he been doing a half- assed job at trying to put it back together ever since. His anger at everyone and everything had consumed him. And what's worse…Lucas had let it.

No more.

"I'm sorry." His voice croaked.

"Lucas?"

He sat his head up, blinking the tears from his eyes. He swiped at his cheeks with his thumbs, but he stayed sitting.

"Luke?"

"Here," his voice when hoarse. "I'm in here." He closed his eyes again and listened to her footsteps as she came closer.

And that's how Peyton found him. Sitting on the floor inside a bedroom that looked like had belonged to a child.

She sat down on the floor next to him, not speaking. She took in the unmade bed, the clothes on the floor, the toy box filled to overflowing. "This was your room?" Of course it was his room. Peyton hadn't meant for the words to come out as a question.

Lucas rested his head against her shoulder then leaned his head back against the wall.

"The night my mom died," Lucas finally spoke. "I asked Keith to be my dad. I told him that that was the only thing I wanted for my birthday. While I was asking, she was dying."

Peyton turned he face into his neck. "Lucas," she whispered.

"Was it like this for you when you let your mad go?"

"I haven't let anything go." She told him. He like the way that she felt there, close to him. "My mom is still gone and I'm still mad as hell." Peyton went on. "I was robbed. When I wake up crying I know that it's because I saw my mom and that it wasn't real. It was a dream. And the reality is that she's gone. They got the guy who killed your mom," she told him. "They never got the son of a bitch who stole mine." She lifted her shoulder then rested her head on his. "Maybe that's why I haven't been able to let go the way that I need to." She told him. "I don' know how it works."

"I had Dan served with papers today." Lucas told her. "I want to be emancipated from him. It's the only way that I can get out from under his thumb. It's the only way that I can be free. That we can be free, Keith and me. It's the only way that we can be a family. If Dan has no say, no power to mess with my life, to make me go back, then Keith and I can be a family the way we should have been before my mom was killed. After. He can be my father, and I can be his son."

"You want that more than anything." She spoke softly, and felt him squeeze her hand.

"It's one of the things that I want most."

She let out a shuddering breath. "Come home with me, Luke."

He tuned his head slowly, looking her in the eye.

"Come home with me, Lucas."

-

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Keith ignored his brother's outrage and continued to work on the car that had come in earlier.

"I asked you a question, Keith."

"Get outta here, Danny." The man under the hood spoke lazily. "This is my place of business and I have the right to refuse service. You've been refused."

"Lucas is my son!"

Keith rose from under the car's hood; slowly he wiped his big hands on the rag he always carried in his back pocket.

"Who do the hell do you think you are, putting these ideas in his head?"

"I didn't have to tell Lucas anything." Keith told him. "That boy is smarter than me, and he's more than a damn sight smarter than you. He's always wanted to be out of there. You know that, but you still want to blame me." He shrugged a shoulder. "Nothing I can do about that, and wouldn't even if I cared. But you know just like I do there is no way in hell, there is anything that you could do, to make that boy go back to that place."

"You underestimate me, Keith." Dan's eyes went hot. "You always have."

Keith's eyes showed no emotion for his brother, not anger, not hate. "You underestimate that boy," he told his brother. "You've always have. Lucas is stronger than you think and he will fight you. He's going home. Lucas is going home, and I'll do whatever I have to do to keep you from taking that from him."

"You're right, Keith." Dan told him. "You are absolutely right. Lucas is coming home. And I will do whatever I have to do to make that happen. You want a family so bad find a willing woman and make one. Lucas will never be your son."

"He's my son in every way that matters. You may be his father, but that doesn't mean a damn thing. I'm his dad."

"You keep telling yourself that."

"You keep telling yourself that you can make that boy love you. Not happening, Danny." Keith watched as his brother slammed out of his garage. He shook his head. Looked like he was closing up shot early today. His brother was on a tear and he didn't want Lucas to be in the middle of it anymore than he already was.

-

He walked slowly along the porch of the vacant house hating everything that had to do with this place.

Family.

He couldn't have the family he wanted; no way was he about to let him have it. He didn't deserve it, and what was a family without a good home to raise it in?

He tried the knob. It was unlocked. Stepping inside the house, he took in the furniture. Most of it had been covered with white sheets. The couch and an easy chair had been left uncovered. The only door left open led to a child's room. Lucas' room.

It looked like it hadn't been changed in years. And that was probably the truth since no one had lived in the place. You could call it a shrine almost.

Pathetic.

He walked back into the house absently flicking the lighter he had in his hand. Then he stopped.

What he was about to do should have had some effect on him, but it didn't. He felt nothing inside.

Crouching, he flicked the lighter to life again under the edges of one of the sheets covering the furniture until the cloth caught fire. Then he moved on to another and another in both the dining room and in the bedrooms.

The smoke was getting so thick it was beginning to be hard to breathe. He crossed an arm over his nose and mouth, coughing hard. Eyes watering, he finally got out of the house. His body greedily sucked in the fresh night air. He barely remembered to close the door behind him.

Getting away from the house as fast as he could, he watched as orange licks of fire started to show in the glass of the windows.


	11. Chapter 11

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Eleven

She had to get him out of that house.

Other than her father, Peyton couldn't remember feeling so much pain coming from someone before.

Someone else's pain.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Lucas had his head tilted back against the seat's head rest. His eyes were closed and his throat worked as he swallowed.

Peyton didn't speak. She couldn't. What could she say? She knew from experience that there were no words to make it right. There was nothing that she could say to make it stop, to make that pain go away.

She should have taken him home, back to Keith's, but she couldn't make herself do it. She wanted to be with him. He needed to be with someone. Why not her? Peyton was volunteering.

She pulled up in front of her house and shut off the engine. Neither of them moved. She looked at Lucas, turned to him. He swallowed again. Peyton reached out a hand, almost hesitantly, touching his shoulder. The sob that he had been fighting broke free from Lucas's chest. Balling his hands into fists, Lucas pressed them hard into his eyes. He bent over double at the waist, his head down.

Peyton felt hot tears press against the back of her eyes. She looked away, staring out the car window. Silently she rubbed the hand that touched him back and forth over his back. Tears spilled from her eyes and down her cheeks when she felt his shoulders shake.

He was grieving.

Finally.

What else could it be? When he made himself stop, Peyton wiped her own eyes. Lucas looked about as if not knowing where he was. He looked over at Peyton almost startled when she took his hand. He looked down at their fingers woven together. Lucas rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

"Come on, Luke," She spoke softly. "Let's go inside."

He nodded his head, hating that he had to let her hand go. He reached for it again after she rounded the car to stand next to him.

They moved slowly up the walk. He rested his forehead against the siding of the house as she fitted her key into the lock.

They held hands up the steps and into her bedroom. When she felt like this, down and felt like someone was sitting on her chest, she picked up a pencil, or, she listened to music.

She disappeared into her closet and came out with one of her many records. She could listen to anything Citizen Cope, so she put them on. Lucas sat at the foot of her bed on the floor with his head leaned back much the same as it had been in the car. His head rested on her bed. Peyton sat down next to him, and again they said nothing.

I'm sorry," he spoke finally. "I didn't mean for you to take care of me."

"I offered, remember?" Lucas said nothing to her words.

He felt like an idiot. Guys did not fall apart in front of girls. Especially the ones they cared about and want to be more with. Not like this. Lucas knew hat he hadn't scared Peyton. And while a part of him wanted to be alone, a bigger part of him needed to be right here there were he was. With her.

"You said that you hadn't let it go."

"No," she shook her head. "But I grieved. I'm still grieving. I can't see how you waited so long." She turned to him with question in her eyes. "Didn't it feel like it was eating you up from the inside out trying to get out?"

Lucas remembered having that feeling, but he'd never felt like he had now. What he had felt then was rage and anger. "I remember wanting to destroy everything." He told her. "I wanted everyone to hurt and be just as scared as I was. I just wanted my mom back." He was quiet for a moment then said. "I couldn't cry. I was a little kid who has just lost his mom, and I couldn't cry. I mean, I did, but that was because I didn't understand."

Lucas laughed a humorless laugh. "I fought with my brother instead. I refused to let his mom be mine. I hated Dan for taking me away from my dad." Peyton laid her head on his shoulder. He rested his cheek on the top of her head, closing his eyes be breathed her in. "It's what Keith has always been."

She nodded. She was envious. Lucas had two people, two fathers essentially, who wanted him. Just for different reasons. They both loved him she guessed, but Dan's love was suffocating. Peyton had seen first hand the way that he was with Nathan. And honestly, she would almost rather have her father be a shell. Dan was there at least. Even when he was in the same room, Larry Sawyer was MIA.

It was like he had died with her mom. She didn't want to think about her dad being dead. It made her heart sink into her stomach.

Peyton closed her eyes when she felt Lucas's arm come around her. She liked the way that he made her feel. Not so alone, but not like some fragile flower either. She liked that she was strong around him. Strong enough to be there for him when he needed her. Just the same as he always seemed to be there when she needed him.

She never wanted anyone the way that she wanted Lucas. No boy, no guy, ever made did that for her. There had never been the looks and the fast heartbeats with any other guy. She was scared to death, but damned if she would run from him. Damned if she would run from whatever this was. She might get burned, but what was life without getting next to the fire?

She loved him.

Peyton didn't know how it happened or where it came from, but she was in love with Lucas Scott. She didn't know it this was it, if he was it, and she didn't care. Peyton dint want to look into the future. She only wanted right now. She only needed right now. She only needed to be with him like this.

She tilted her head back to look at him and her heart picked up speed at the way that Lucas was looking at her. His expressive eyes had gone so dark they were the color of midnight. They shifted from her face to her mouth then back to her eyes again.

Peyton felt her lids droop.

When Lucas moved in, she did too. Their first kiss was merely a brush of lips, a nudging. Sensation shot through them at the intimate contact. Tingles shot through her making Peyton grab hold of Lucas's sweater, fisting the material in her fist.

The shiver that skittered down Lucas's spine made him suck in a deep breath. He turned toward her fully, burying his hands in her hair to his wrists. Tilting Peyton's had back, he kissed her again.

Their second kiss was less restrained than the first. As things progressed their kisses go hotter and more insistent.

Still kissing they rose to their knees. Peyton pressed both hands to Lucas's chest. Not to push him away, but to feel him. His heart pounded against the palm of her hand Her hands then moved over the contours of his chest, down his stomach, then around his back.

Lucas pulled his mouth away from hers. Peyton was pressed against him. He could feel her heartbeat just the same as he could feel his own. It was pounding just like his.

Resting this heads together, another shiver worked it way though Lucas as Peyton's warm breaths from her own erratic breathing touched on Lucas's kiss-sensitive lips.

He kept his eyes closed as he felt her hand move under his sweater to pull the worn fabric over his head. His lips found hers again and like before their kisses started out slow and worked their way up to where they could barely breathe.

A wave of panic washed over her when Peyton felt Lucas push her jacket from her shoulders. The panic was followed by anger at herself. She wasn't scared of Lucas and Lucas wasn't Nathan.

This was them together.

She pushed it away.

Something was wrong, he felt it. Lucas felt it, but for the life of him, he couldn't make himself stop. She was with him, but she wasn't. Lucas made himself pull away.

"Peyton, we don't have to-"

No, they didn't, but she wanted to. She cut of his next words with her lips.

He kept telling himself that they should stop, he new what. His brain was screaming it, but his body, his heart they were taking their sweet assed time catching up.

It wasn't until they finally made it to her bed, and his shirt had joined his sweater on the floor that Lucas finally stopped them.

His arms were braced on either side of her head as he stared down at her.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

She looked back at him, her hazel gaze giving away nothing. Peyton didn't say a word. She turned her face away from him instead. Lucas put a finger under her chin, turning her face back to him, making her meet his gaze.

"I'm not other guys," he told her. "I'm not Nathan."

He watched as her throat worked. Peyton tried to turn away again, but Lucas wouldn't let her. So she closed her eyes against the angry tears that welled behind her lids.

Lucas clinched his jaw.

Son of a bitch. Goddamn Nathan, he thought.

When he opened eyes again, Peyton's were still closed. He rolled from atop her. He had to. He was human after all. He pulled her to his side. She was hesitant at first but finally she moved to rest her head on his shoulder. His skin was hot under her cheek. Their feet tangled at the foot of her bed. Unconsciously, Lucas threaded his fingers through her hair. His other hand sought out hers.

They lay that way for a long time. The hand in her hair slowly stopped moving and the hand she held in hers stopped playing with her fingers.

He had fallen asleep.

Slowly she moved away from him. Sitting up beside him, Peyton watched Lucas sleep. His chest rose and fell steadily. His bruises here still there but for the most part healed.

She had been right.

Lucas Scott had a beautiful chest.

Peyton felt a familiar itch in her finger tips and moved away from the bed. When she came back to sit next to him, she crossed her legs, sitting the sketch pad on her lap. She sketched him where he lay, smiling when Lucas sneezed in his sleep.

-

Lucas hadn't been home when he got there and Keith had to admit that he had been a little worried. Dan was the king of tirades and Keith wouldn't put it passed his little brother to play dirty.

Dirty was Dan Scott's middle name.

He was more like their father than Keith had ever thought possible.

He didn't stay at the house long. He need to find Lucas and see for himself that the boy was okay. He'd had another dream about his mother and that worried Keith.

When he walked into the diner, MJ James was all smiles. The smile slid from her face when she saw Keith's distraction.

"What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Run in with my brother is all. He's been served."

"Served?"

"Emancipation papers." Keith explained. "Lucas is doing what he has to do to get out from under Dan."

"Where is Lucas?"

"I'm hoping with Peyton Sawyer. Two of them have been…hanging out together. I don't want Luke to be by himself should Dan happen to find him.

"He's looking?"

"Son of a bitch tore out of the garage after reading me the riot act about putting thoughts in Lucas's head. That boy doesn't need my help in figuring out what he wants. He's Karen's son."

"That he is," the woman nodded sagely as she poured Keith a cup of coffee.

"Rain check." He told her. "I'm going to look for Luke some more."

"His phone?"

"Not answering." He replied. "Do me a favor and keep Haley in the dark about this. Lucas should be the one to tell her and I'd hate to see the girl locked up for kicking Dan Scott in the balls."

MJ laughed because she knew that her daughter would do just that. "Will do."

Keith was thinking about Karen and he rove and found himself taking a path that he had avoided for years.

He smelled the smoke before he saw the fire flickering to life in the windows. The tow truck skidded to a stop, its front tire jumping the curb. Keith shot out of the truck and into up to the house. He stabbed his hands through his hair then snatched his cell from his back pocket. His dark eyes grew wide when he saw the bag.

"Lucas?"

_Oh, god no._

"Lucas!" The cell phone slipped from the man's fingers. Keith took the porch steps in two strides. He burned his hand on the door knob. Taking a step back, he kicked in the front door. Immediately his hand covered his nose and mouth. He moved inside.

The living room was fast on its way to being engulfed. The kitchen was gone. Keith called for Lucas over and over again and got nothing.

He'd searched the back of the house, the bathrooms, spare bedroom, and Karen's room. Nothing. Keith started back to the front of the house. Moving down the hallway, he coughed hard enough to make his chest hurt. The heat burned at his skin, smoked invaded his body moving down his throat and into his chest pulling deeper, harder coughs from him.

His eye began to water and Keith could barely see. "Lucas!" He coughed again.

There was an eerie moan of a cracking, then a splintering sound that had Keith looking up. Debris fell into his eyes. He ducked and began to run, the ceiling was about to fall in. But it was like he was moving in slow motion. He threw his body, jumping to try and clear the distance, but he didn't make it. The ceiling fell in on him, pinning his leg under the heavy, smoldering wood. Items from the attic had fallen in on him as well. Keith tried to pull himself free, but was just too much. Feeling, more than seeing the ceiling start to fall again, he tried to cover his head with his arms. The weight threw him completely to the ground, cracking his head on the hardwood floor below him.

Everything went black.

-

_Save him._

Lucas's eyes came open. He sat up quickly bringing Peyton up with him. They were in her bed. It took him a second to realize where he was and what had happened. Peyton had brought him here because she hasn't wanted him to be alone. And he had come with her because he wanted to be with her.

"What? What is it?" He looked into her sleepy, heavy lid eyes.

_Save him._

"Something's wrong."

"What?"

"I have to go." Lucas rolled out of the bed pulling his shirt and sweater on over his head as he stood.

"Wait," Peyton was off the bed right after him. She caught up with him at the bottom of the steps. "What a minute, Lucas. What's wrong?"

He kept moving, his feet wouldn't let him stop. "I don't know." He told her. "But something's wrong. I can feel it." It was a gnawing pit in at the bottom of his stomach.

The look on his face almost scared her. It was like he was about to break almost. The next second they were in her car going back the way that they had come. He smelled first, the smoke. It made his heart fall into his stomach because he knew.

He knew.

_Save him._

"Oh my, God." Peyton breathed.

"Keith!" Lucas was out of the car before it even stopped. The tow from the garage was parked haphazardly on the on the road in front of the house. The front wheels were up on the sidewalk. Like the man had skidded to a stop, but the car hadn't stopped fast enough. People were starting out of their houses, watching. A man shouted that the fire department was on the way. Another said that it should have been here by now. Lucas couldn't hear any sirens, and he wasn't about to wait.

He ran across the lawn with Peyton yelling his name behind him. It was like a dream and he was moving in slow motion. He could feel every cold breath he took go to his heart. He could see it come out of him in a small cloud in front of his face.

Lucas took the porch in one step, still he yelled for his uncle. His family. His dad. The front door was open, but he couldn't go through it. The heat was too intense, the fire was too hot. It was so hot that it stole his breath.

"Keith!" Lucas kept shouting for him, but he was getting no answer. He called again and again, but still nothing and he couldn't see inside. Everything was on fire. Lucas kept yelling for Keith as he jumped from the porch and ran around the side the house. He jumped on to the porch again in front of the outside door of his bedroom.

He kicked at it one, twice, three times. Lucas kept kicking until the wood of the door split. It split, but didn't open. He shoved at the broken door with his shoulder, pushing aside the child sized dresser that had been put in front of it all those year before.

He jumped over the bed and through the open door of the room. With his arm crossed over his nose and mouth, Lucas breathed into the cotton of his sweater, but he still coughed as the smoke invaded his lungs.

His eyes searched the room wildly. The curtains were on fire as well as every piece of furniture. He could only see so much though the opening of the door. Fire had almost completely taken it over. He could see Peyton. She was being held back. Someone was keeping her from coming in. She was screaming something, but Lucas couldn't hear, his ears were filled with the roaring and cracking of the fire around him.

It was the flash of metal that caught his eye first then he saw his arm. "Keith!" He was covered with debris. It looked like a piece of the roof had fallen in on him. A glance up at the ceiling told Lucas just that. Wiping his sweater from over his head, Lucas rushed to put out the fire that burned on the man's arm and shoulder. After, he tore off the sleeves of the sweater, wrapping the around his hands, then he started in.

He moved and threw the pieces of the roof off the felled man's back. Lucas's body shook with the deep coughs that wracked his body. His eyes watered from the smoke, and he needed air, but he wasn't about leave him. He wouldn't leave Keith.

_Save him._

Then there were another set of hands. Lucas's gaze spun to see Jake. His face too was turning black from the soot, smoke and fire. Together they hauled the big pieces of roof as much as they could and pulled Keith's Scott's limp body from under the rest of the mess. Each boy took an arm, holding the man up, arms around his waist. They had to go back the way that they came. Through Lucas's bedroom.

When they got there they were met with more fire, their exit compromised. The roof was completely englufed. The glass exploded out of the window as the fire pushed its way through. He heard Peyton yelling for him, and he would have called back, but he couldn't take in any air. Black dots spotted in front of his eyes. He shook his head hard trying to fight off what was coming. It was only afew more steps. They were almost there. Once, twice, Lucas stumbled. He felt his world going black then Jake was there, in his ear calling to him. Lucas forced his eyes opened again. All he had to do was make it to the door.

A few feet.

He could do it.

His chest was on fire, but Lucas made himself move. He fought it, but the wave was just too strong, his lungs gave up. The third time he stumbled, he fell. He heard Jake yelling his name and he took Keith with him and everything went black.

-

"Shit!" Adrenaline pumping through him, Jake Jagielski hefted the older man over his shoulders like he was nothing. He couldn't feel the heat or the smoke around him. He couldn't feel the weight of the man he carried out into the fresh air, all he had was the need. He had to get this man out so he could com back for the other.

He came out on the other side, stumbling down the porch steps and out on to the grass. He got Keith as far away from the house as he could before he put the man on the ground. On his hands and knees, Jake sucked in breath after breath, coughing hard. When he stood, his head got light and he almost fell, but he righted himself and stopped Peyton before she ran into the house after Lucas.

She fought him again.

"Goddammit, Peyton," he shouted, his voice hoarse from smoke. "I have to go back in there and you have to stay here!"

"He's still inside, Jake!"

"I know it!" He shouted. "Stay here!"

Firm arms wrapped around Peyton as she started forward again. "She's staying," Haley told him. "Help him, Jake." He was already moving into the house when the sound of sirens came around the corner.

Fire was falling from the now engulfed roof like drips of water. Jake batted off the flames that feel on his shoulder. They fell on Lucas's unconscious body. His shoulder, back and arm were on fire, his hair singed. Jake tried to put the fire out, but in the end he pulled the shirt off his friend's body in frustration instead burning his own hands.

Their way out was on fire now and still they were going to have to go though it. He prayed as he hefted Lucas on his shoulders. The heat of the fire burned his skin as Jake got a running start. Jumping on to the dresser, he threw both Lucas and himself through the door. They fell to the porch, but Jake wouldn't let himself rest. Coughing so hard his chest hurt, Jake pulled his friend onto the grass. The fire department was attempting to put out the fire. Paramedics were fighting to keep Keith on a stretcher.

"Lucas!" The man shouted trying to get to his nephew. "Luke!"

Truing him to his back, Jake felt for breath. Getting none, he started to pump on Lucas's chest Peyton was next to him in a heart beat breathing for Lucas every time he told her to.

Peyton remembered every prayer she had ever said with her mother and spoke them in her mind now. She said them to herself and to him.

"Come on, Luke!" Jake shouted. He threw off the arm that a paramedic put on him trying to urge him away so they could do their job, but Jake wasn't about to stop. He had him, he knew it, and he wasn't about to let him go. "Come on!"

"Lucas!" Keith yelled again. "Lucas!"

A cough then a gasp.

Lucas coughed so hard, so much; he couldn't take in a decent breath.

"Yeah!" Jake laughed. "There you go! You're okay, let it come. Crazy, bastard."

He felt her hands, cool and soft on his face first, then he smelled her hair. Apples. Even through all the smoke, he smelled the apples. Lucas's eyes flickered open, but everything was blurry. But she was there right next to him. Weakly he raised his hand to touch her face. He needed to feel her.

"Lucas Scott, you moron." He smiled when he heard Haley coughing once more. "Hell are you doing running into a burning building without your cape?" She told him. "You are in so much trouble, you ass. I told you that I was gonna hurt you the next time you made me cry."

"Sorry," he croaked.

"You will be."

Lucas watched as Haley reached out a hand, touching Peyton's shoulder. "You did good," Haley told her. "You did real good. Thank you." Peyton nodded. Lucas's lips curled into another smile when he felt Peyton's hand hold his.


	12. Chapter 12

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Twelve

"Where's my son?"

Haley rose to stand guard at Lucas's door. Dan spared the young woman a withering glance. His glare was cut off when Haley's mother stepped in font of him crossing her arms under her breasts. Her dark eyes burned holes into him.

"Where. Is. My. Son?"

"Lucas is unconscious. He has a severe burn on his shoulder. They may have to do skin grafts. His back was burned too, but not so badly." MJ told him. "Someone burned his house down and Keith was inside. Lucas, along with Jake Jagielski, went in to save him. Jake had to go back into get Luke.

"Jacob and Peyton Sawyer had to perform CPR," the woman's voice broke. "They had to breath life back into him because Lucas needed all the help he could get coming back," she informed him. "He doesn't want to see you."

"That's not his choice." Dan started to move around her, but MJ shoved him back. He clenched his fists and his jaw.

"You'd better be ready to use those on me." A male voice said from behind him. Dan turned to see a big hulk of a man with burnt blonde hair, dark, almost black eyes and shoulders so wide it looked like he had to turn sideways to walk through doors. He moved past Dan winking at Haley who nodded sagely.

Jimmy James put his arm around his wife's shoulder.

"Lucas doesn't want to see you," the woman went on. "He doesn't want any part of you. Those papers he served you with said as much."

"I'm his father."

"He doesn't wan you to be."

"Haley James," her mother warned still looking at Dan. "That boy made me promise not to let you anywhere near him and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"What we plan to do." Haley added.

"Damn right." Her father put in.

"Go home, Dan," MJ told him. "See if Nathan has an alibi."

"My son had _nothing _to do with this."

"You don't know that." Jimmy said to him. "It was arson, Scott. Lucas's doctors asked about the healing bruises on that boy's body. He wanted to know who put them there."

"And you told him."

_"You're goddamned right!"_

"Jimmy," his wife put a restraining hand on his chest. She knew her husband. It was where Haley got her temper. Well, most of it. The last thing they needed was for Jimmy to be sitting in jail because he cut right through Dan Scott.

"They wanted to know about the concussion." The man went on. "They're going to look at Nathan and they're going to look at you. Leave him alone."

"Don't you tell me how to raise my son."

"He doesn't want to be your son."

Dan turned watching as Peyton Sawyer walked passed the man without even a glance. Haley let her inside the room. Dan caught a glimpse of his youngest son lying in a hospital bed. His left arm was bandaged from his shoulder down to his elbow. He had burns on his face, his hair was singed.

"Why can't you just leave him alone?" Haley wanted to know. "Why does he have to fight so hard to be free?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you."

"But you will to the police." MJ told him matter-of-factly. "Because you would do anything you had to do to get Lucas back into that house."

"You didn't want a damn thing to do with him until Keith was all that he had left."

"Haley," her father warned this time.

"Child, listen to you father."

She ignored them both. "You're still trying to beat Keith and you've been using Lucas to do it." She snarled at him. "You lose," she spat. "Lucas isn't you pawn anymore."

-

His eyes still burned and he felt like he was being held down by something. Lucas started to panic but stopped.

Their free hands were twined together. Her head was on his shoulder, and every time she exhaled, her sweet breath touched his chin.

He didn't know whether or not Peyton was aware that he was awake, and it didn't matter. Lucas just wanted to savor the moment. He liked the way she felt against him.

Unconsciously, Lucas pulled in a deep breath. Peyton stirred pushing herself up on an elbow. She looked down at him, concern furrowing her brow. She looked into Lucas's eyes. "Do you hurt?" She asked softly. "I can get someone." She started to move away from him, but he stopped her.

"Stay."

Peyton nodded, curling back up next to him in his hospital bed. "You scared the hell out of me." She admitted huskily. She couldn't close her eyes to get away from the image of Jake carrying him out of a burning house on his shoulders because when she did, he saw herself breathing life back into his body.

She's never given anyone CPR before and she never wanted to have to do it again.

"I'm sorry," his voice rasped. Lucas pulled the plastic tubing away from his nose. It as there to give him extra air, but the damned thing was burning his nostrils and he had enough heat and irritation to last a lifetime.

She pushed up on her elbow again reaching for what he had pushed away. "You need that." She told him. "They took the mask off because you were coughing and you kept pulling at it."

His gaze was cloudy but he could still see Peyton just fine. Her eyes were puffy, like she had been crying. Lucas touched his fingers to her face. Her hand stilled and she looked at him.

"You look good."

Peyton smiled an almost embarrassed smile and shook her head.

"You cry those for me?" He wanted to know.

She only nodded, unable to speak.

"I'm okay, you know. A little charred,"

"Don't joke about this, Lucas." The told him. "Please don't joke," she nearly pleaded when her mind flashed back to her breaths raising his chest. She slammed her eyes shut begging her mind just o make it stop. She needed that image to leave her alone.

She felt him touch her face again. Peyton opened her eyes. She laid her head back down on his shoulder and immediately she felt his hand in her hair.

Peyton smiled to herself.

"It wasn't you."

Lucas's fingers stopped moving. Peyton swallowed hard, but went on. "It wasn't you," she said again. "In my room, it wasn't you. You were…no boy has ever made me feel the way that you do, Lucas."

It was so male and guy typical, but Lucas felt his chest swell and her words. He was glad that she wasn't…her soft laugh pulled him back.

Busted.

"You help me remember, too." She told him. "My mom used to say that next to watching him cook and washing the dishes, seeing a man blush is a top five sexy."

His busted blush turned into an embarrassed one. Peyton laughed again. Lucas loved that sound and wanted to hear it more. She kissed the side of his mouth and laid her head back on his shoulder.

"It wasn't you." She said again.

"What did he do?"

"Not what you're thinking." Just the thought of it made her shudder. She wanted to say that Nathan was a bastard but not a monster, but that wasn't true. What he had done to Lucas proved that.

"I wasn't," she tried to explain. "We never,"

"Me either." He knew what Peyton was getting at. She didn't have to say it. He didn't want to have Peyton and his brother in his head.

"Nathan and I never went that far."

"You don't have to tell me this."

"I want to. I need to." Peyton pulled in a breath. "Everyone thinks that they know. Nathan sure wasn't going to say otherwise and I never really cared. High school, that place is just a stop to where I want to be later, you know? But this thing with you and me. I care. I care what you think. And I'm not that girl that people make me out to be. I haven't had-"

"I'm a virgin."

"Lucas-"

Hey, if they were being honest. "And until that first time on the Rivercourt I hadn't ever been kissed."

That stopped her.

Never been kissed? Yeah right.

"Oh, bull. Tell me another one." She grinned.

Lucas found himself grinning, too. "Scouts honor."

"Scouts don't kiss like that." Scouts didn't make girls who never smirked walk around with, as Brooke Davis would say, "I'm getting some" grin. First timers didn't do that. Peyton didn't believe in unicorns.

But Lucas was starting to make her believe.

"Why not?" She asked him.

"Why not what?"

"Are you waiting for marriage?"

"No."

"Then what?" She went on. "Waiting for that perfect girl?"

"No girl has ever tempted me enough I guess." He admitted honestly. "And being Nathan's brother has presented more than a few oportunities. Apparently the girls like to rile my brother by doing whatever it takes to get his attention." He blew out a breath. "I know that guys are supposed to want sex all the time, and I admit to serious frustration, but if you haven't had it, you don't know what you're missing I guess. I'm a total disappointment to my species, I know, but there it is. Does that make sense?"

"That you aren't a walking hormone? It's rare, but they do walk the planet. Are you for real?"

"Don't I feel real?"

God he did. "You and Jake Jagielski have to be two of the most solid, salt of the earth guys I've ever laid eyes on. How you survive in Tree Hill is a mystery."

"What do you know about Jake?"

"That Brooke has been trying to corrupt him for the last two months and she's getting nowhere."

"If he wants her, she'll break though. You did."

"Are you saying you fought?"

"Like hell."

"Thanks."

"I fought because you were Nathan's girl." Lucas told her. "You would have been just one more thing for the two of us to fight about, and it wouldn't have really been about you anyway. It would have been his excuse. I didn't avoid fights with Nathan because I was afraid of him."

"What made you change your mind about me?"

Lucas shrugged his shoulder then hissed as hot pain shot thought him. Peyton reached for the call button pressing it.

"I knew he treated you like a plaything, but I made myself stay out of it," he told her. Then I found myself being there for you. Being that guy for you. You smiled then you laughed and you looked at me. There was something in your eyes…"

Peyton remembered that day. She had always thought that she made Lucas uncomfortable. She never understood why he was there for her the way that he was. She was just his brother's girlfriend. They hadn't been anything to each other.

He'd stopped being Nathan's quiet older brother the first time they had actually spoke, really talked. That time in the halls she had saw him just being Lucas and not Dan Scott's oldest son.

"You've always been…you've always deserved better." Lucas went on. "That day in the halls, I told myself that I wanted to make you see it. I wanted to be your better."

"You are my better, Lucas."

"I love you, Peyton Sawyer." Lucas told her just as the nurse made her appearance. "Just thought that you should know."

-

_I love you, Peyton Sawyer. Just thought that you should know._

"Is he okay? Peyton? Earth to Sawyer."

"He's feeling it now." Peyton looked around her. She had left the room while the nurse examined Lucas. "Where is he?"

"Gone." Haley's eye went hard. "Someone set that fire. Lucas and Keith could have died. Jake could have died."

"You think it was Dan?"

"I heard Keith telling my mom before they wheeled him into surgery that he would do whatever he had to do to get Lucas back in that house. It sounds like a threat if I ever heard one." Her eyes turned soft when she looked back at Lucas's room. Then she looked to Peyton. "You're good for him." She said. "I've seen Lucas smile, hell, laugh more now than ever."

"I love him, Haley."

"Good. Because he loves you too." She chuckled. "I won't have to beat your ass now."

"I wasn't worried about it." Peyton smirked.

Haley grinned. She so liked this chick.

"He's gonna be okay."

"His house..."

"They can rebuild it." Haley told her. "We can. Whatever asshole did this won't be stealing anything else from my boys. Keith and Lucas deserve to be happy. Together as a family. Nothing should stand in their way. They've lost too much already."

"Nathan hates him." Peyton thought aloud. "He tried to kick Lucas's ribs in and Luke fought back. He could have done this."

"I know," Haley replied. "And God help him if he did. Because not even Keith will be enough to hold Lucas back. He'll tear Nathan apart."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

-

_I don't need a handicap to sink you._

Lucas's eyes shot open. It was dark in his room. He could see Haley asleep on the couch on the other side of the room. Peyton was asleep in the chair next to the bed. Her even breathing sounded so soft next to him.

He kicked the covers away. Hospital gown gone, Lucas was in a pair of sweat pants and an old T-shirt.

God Bless Mama James.

He cradled his left arm in his right and moved out of bed.

"Sleep is apart of the healing process."

Lucas froze.

"Your uncle was right." Peyton went on. "Their going to have to strap you to the bed to make you stay there."

"I need to see Keith."

"He's probably asleep, Luke."

_Save him._

"You can stay, or you can come with to make sure I don't fall over."

"Go with him," Haley sounded from her corner. "This is something he has to do. He falls over. Catch him. But use your knees. Luke's a heavy bastard."

"Love you too, Hales."

"You'd better," she yawned. "Tell Keith to hurry back. Barbeque seasons is not that long off. Dad's looking forward to beating the pants off him this year."

-

"What was that about?" She asked closing the door behind them.

"Keith and J.J., that's Haley's dad Jimmy,"

"Jimmy James."

"Right, J.J. I love them smart."

Peyton felt like she had been lifted ten feet of the ground.

_Love._

Slowly they walked down the hall. "Keith and Haley's dad," Lucas went on. "Have his grill cook off every year." She watched the dimple wink in his cheek when he smiled, the smile slowly fell away. "I usually showed after the festivities. The cooking part anyway. Couldn't chance seeing Keith." They were silent for a beat as the walked.

"I know it's early, and I've never asked before, but, you could maybe come."

"Lucas Scott," she teased. Another foreign concept for her. "Are you asking me out?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I am."

"How do you know we'll still be together then?"

"I'm not going anywhere, Peyton." They stopped in front of Keith's door. He touched his hand to her hair. "I'm here," Lucas told her. "For as long as you want me, Peyton Sawyer, I'm here."

She was careful when Lucas pulled her into his arms. As if it was her place, she rested her head against his chest. Lucas brushed a kiss over her hair.

-

When he had come to see him earlier, Keith had been asleep. He as still out now. Doctors had made it that way so he could get enough rest to begin to heal properly. He'd be out for at least another day. He needed it. They were going to need all the help that they could get when they went back to what was left.

"We can fix it." Lucas told his sleeping uncle. "We can make it right. They aren't taking another damn thing from us. Hear me? We can fix it, and God help them if they did this."

_I don't need a handicap to sink you._

"God help them."


	13. Chapter 13

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Thirteen

"What do you want?"

"For your boyfriend to stop trying to drown my family." Nathan told her. "That's what I want."

"Lucas's house burned to the ground. He, his uncle Keith, your uncle Keith, and Jake Jagielski could have died."

"That doesn't have a damn thing to do with my family." He growled.

When Peyton had stepped out on her porch, he had been waiting for her. Lucas was getting out of the hospital today and she wanted to be there, but she had to deal with a possible arsonist.

"You and Lucas fought at school. After that you went to Keith's and tried to finish what you started. You tired to scramble his brains if I remember correctly."

"Hardly," Nathan cut in. "And that bastard didn't curl into a ball and let me beat the hell out of him."

"You still followed him home, Nathan." She pointed out. "You went to him."

"I won't put it passed Lucas to have touched his own place." He smirked. "Anything to get some attention right?"

"You're sick." She started past him and down the steps. Nathan snaked out a hand, grabbing her elbow. He pulled her back around toward him.

"You tell Lucas-"

Peyton shoved his chest. Nathan let her go holing his hands up.

"Lucas didn't burn his house down." She told him. "And you know it. You're here because you're afraid. You've always hated your brother and there's proof. Proof that could have the cops looking at your cowardly self. They're going to look at your father too, Nathan.

"The police have Keith's statement. Your father told Keith that he would do whatever he had to do to get Lucas back. Maybe you're here because you're afraid. You think that dear old dad made good one his threat? And this is what? You trying to cover Dan's backside?" She tilted her head. "Or maybe it's you trying to cover yours. Because you don't need a handicap to sink Lucas, isn't that right, Nate?"

"You're goddamned right!" Nathan told her. "I didn't have to burn down that house. And why would I want to? What will that get me? When I crush Lucas, and I will. I want it to be on even footing. My father didn't need to burn that place down either.'

"Didn't he?" She challenged. "Why are you telling me all this?" Peyton wanted to know. "Why not tell your story to the cops?"

"I did." He replied. "I went down there and told those donut eating, coffee swilling fatasses that I didn't torch anyone's house but they're still coming. And they're coming because of frickin' Lucas." He jabbed a finger at Peyton. "You tell that bastard to leave my family alone before we start fighting back."

"That a threat?"

"A promise."

She nodded. "The cops are going to find out who did this. And if the don't, if they drop the ball, you can be damn sure that Lucas, Keith, and that rest of his family are going to find out what happened. If you did this-"

"Lucas did this."

"No he didn't." Peyton snapped. "Lucas didn't do this and you know damn well that he didn't. You aren't going to walk on this. Neither one of you are."

"There isn't anything to walk from, Peyton." Nathan sneered. "You know that I wouldn't do something like this."

"Do I?"

"Yes!" He hissed. "I admit that I have no use for that-"

"His name is Lucas." She cut him off. "And if you're trying to convince me of your innocence in this, you aren't. He's your brother, he exists. Get over it."

-

"Wait for me."

"Keith,"

"Wait for me, Luke." The man said to him. "I don't want you to do this alone, and I know I'm going to need you there with me when I have to see for myself what's left. We'll do it together."

Lucas nodded.

"What's on your mind, Skywalker?"

Lucas mustered a small smile at the name. "Do you remember what I asked you the night that mom died?"

It had been a long time since Keith Scott has shed a tear. Even when he thought about loosing both Karen and Lucas the way that he had, the man had never let himself shed a tear. The last time he had cried was when they but the woman he loved in the ground. For years after he had always been able to battle the urge to cry back. He couldn't do that now.

He nodded closing his eyes. Silent tears trekked down his cheeks.

"I still want that, Uncle Keith." Lucas told him. "I still want you to be my dad. Getting out from under Dan isn't just about getting out of the house and away from that man, away from Nathan. It's about getting my life back. It's about getting my family back. I want you to be my dad, Keith.

"Dan never wanted me because he loved me. He only wanted me because he couldn't let you have me. He didn't want you to be my dad. It's always been about him and it still is. I need you to be my dad, Uncle Keith." Lucas told him once more.

"Okay," the man nodded. "It's the way that it's supposed to be. We'll fight Dan. You'll get your emancipation. This thing with you and Nathan, and now the house. You'll get it. And when you do," his uncle told him. "When you do. I'm going to adopt you and make you my boy legally. Then me and you, and Haley, MJ and Jimmy-"

"And me." Peyton stood in the doorway to Keith's room embarrassed that she opened her mouth and spoke up the way that she had. She quickly pushed the feeling back.

"And Ms. Peyton Sawyer." Keith added with a grin and a wink. "We're going to rebuild your house."

"Our house." Lucas corrected.

"Our house." The man nodded. "Our house."

-

"You mean that?"

They sat outside on the steps of the diner. He had a brand new body shop hoodie that he had yet to break in, but he was working on it. The air was cold around him. It blew Peyton's hair into her eyes. Without even thinking about it, Lucas reached out. He rubbed the curly strands between his fingers for long seconds then tucked the strands back behind her ear. Images of what had happened between them in her room flashed through his mind.

Lucas wanted to be with Peyton like that more than ever.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes I meant it." She looked at him with those eyes.

Lucas felt himself smile.

"Can't wait to see you swing a hammer."

Peyton laughed a real laugh. "I'll have you know, Lucas Scott," she spoke matter-of-factly, a smile still on her face. "I know how to sling a hammer."

Lucas raised a dubious brow. He tried not to smile, but he couldn't keep it back. The dimpled winked out in his cheek. "Got yourself a tool belt?"

"Maybe."

He laughed out loud, and she laughed with him. "I can't wait to see you in it." When she touched her hand to his face, he stopped laughing. His heartbeat picked up.

"Something told me that I would find you here."

The moment was shattered when Brooke Davis made an appearance. "Sorry," she apologized. Lucas recognized the look.

Girl talk.

He hoped they were kind.

Lucas rose slowly. "I'm going to con something sweet out of MJ." He nodded at Peyton's friend. Brooke nodded back knowingly. On his way inside, Lucas brushed his fingers over Peyton's shoulder. She watched him over her shoulder as he went inside.

"Wow."

Her friend's voice pulled her away from watching Lucas as he leaned into the diner's counter. Whatever he had been saying to Haley's mother had put a smile on the woman's face and had Haley herself rolling her eyes.

"Wow what?"

"You know what." Brooke teased. A look of worry then came over her face. It turned into hurt then frustration. "Dammit, woman," she raged half heartedly. "You damn near get fried to a crisp and you didn't call me. I had to hear it from that big mouth bitch Shari that my best girl and that hulky piece of beautiful boy candy otherwise known as Jake Jagielski were a couple of heroes."

"I'm sorry, Brooke." Peyton soothed. "I'm sorry. I should have called you. I didn't want to leave Lucas."

"You love him."

Peyton nodded, swallowing hard. "I do." She told her friend. "And I'm scared to death."

"It's supposed to be scary and great. It's supposed to be this huge beautiful, magic thing that makes your head spin and your heart beat so fast you can barely breathe."

Peyton nodded slowly to herself. That was exactly the way that she felt.

"Can't wait until it happens to me."

She smirked at that. She couldn't wait until it happened to her friend either.

"He loves you, too, you know."

Peyton nodded. She knew it, and that fact scared her too, but in a real, very good way. And when she told Lucas Scott that she loved him back, she wanted it to be right. When she told Lucas the way that she felt about him, she wanted him to be able to see it, too. She didn't want him to have any doubt.

-

Milkshake in hand, Lucas made his way though the back of the diner. He just wanted to take a minute for himself to think.

He'd dreamed about his mother last night, but it was more of a memory if anything. Lucas had remembered the last day they had been happy together. He was swinging between them. Keith and his mom had each been holding one of his hands and they were swinging him. As he remembered it, Lucas smiled at the memory of his laugh. A child's laugh.

Then he woke up.

"Lucas?"

The smile fell from his face. Dan stood not ten feet away from him in one of his many suits. His hair was longer, his face haggard. Maybe the guilt was eating him alive. Maybe the man did have a conscience. Maybe he did have a soul.

"What do you want?"

"For you to come home."

"Not going to happen."

"It's were you belong."

"I never belonged."

"I want you to stop this." Dan said to him.

"Stop what?" Lucas watched his father's jaw clench tightly as his eyes flashed.

"You know what," Dan all but growled. "This emancipation business. It's ridiculous, Lucas, and you know it. Keith had no right sticking his nose in this. He's putting-"

"You keep your mouth shut about Keith." Lucas spat. "He went into a burning house trying to save me because he thought that I was inside."

"And you nearly died because of it."

"You expected me to leave him in there?" Dan didn't reply. Lucas shook his head in disgust. "Did you set my home on fire?"

"How can you even ask me that?"

"Did you burn down my house!"

"No, Goddammit!" Dan roared back.

Lucas shook his head again. "I don't believe you." He told him. "I don't believe a word that comes out of your mouth. But hey, maybe you are telling the truth and Nathan set that fire. He always was a back shooting bastard. Never did come at me face to face."

"Now you wait just a damn minute-"

"No you wait!" Lucas cut him off. "My home was taken away from me, my uncle was nearly killed. Nothing is going to be taken away from me ever again. Not if I can help it. Not my freedom and not my family." Lucas eyes flashed with fierce determination as he spoke the words.

"I'm not going back, and there is nothing that you can do to change that. This is my decision and it's been made. Get over it."

"You are mine." Dan told him. "You are my son and you're a minor, and if it's that last thing I do, you will be back in my house, back at home where you belong. Do you understand me?"

"I'm not some car at your damn dealership, Dan. I don't belong to you or anyone else. _Do you understand?_ You think you stopped me by burning me out?" Lucas closed the space between them.

"You didn't." He spoke his voice low and quiet. "You didn't stop me and you never will. Why? Because I'm stronger than you, and I'll take what you, Nathan, or anyone else has to throw at me. I'm not going to break. I'm not going to cave and I'm not going to give."

"I'm not your enemy here, son."

"Don't call me that. Do _not_ call me that. You have no right."

"I took care of you, you are my blood, and I have every right!" Dan raged. "Keith will never be your father, and as much as you both seem to want it, he will never be your dad-"

"You couldn't be more wrong."

"If you think that I'm going to let this bullshit emancipation crap fly then you're in for a rude awakening, boy. Keith is not going to adopt you. Do you hear me? Over my dead body."

"Lucas," a voice came from behind them. "Give your father three feet."

Dan looked over his son's shoulder to the woman who stood at the top of the diner's wide back steps.

MJ James had a double barrel shotgun hefted in her arms and she had Dan in her sights.

"Baby boy, you do what Mama James says and you step on back."

"MJ-" Lucas began.

"No one's going to get hurt," she assured. "Come to me. Do as I say right now, Lucas Eugene," Lucas did as he was told, he backed away from Dan. The woman's aim moved from Dan's chest to just below his belt.

"You get your sorry ass of Café property." She told him.

"This is a public place."

The woman cocked the weapon, aiming again. "Yeah," she replied. "And I reserve the right to refuse service. Consider yourself refused."


	14. Chapter 14

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Fourteen

"You get your sorry ass away from my establishment, and you stay away from my boy. You hear me, Scott?"

"Your boy, your boy." The man repeated. "You and Keith go on about how Lucas is yours and how you love him so much. Thieves, that what's you are."

"And what are you?" Lucas raged. "A coward. That's what."

"Lucas, you go inside now and get off your feet. Those burns need help to heal and you need to rest. Go on inside."

"Not leaving you here with him."

The woman laughed. "You're a good boy. But you go inside now like I told you. I'm the one with the gun remember?"

"This is not done, Lucas." Dan said to him. "You need to be with your family. This thing with you and Nathan, the both of you are just going to have to swallow it."

"Like you and Keith?" Lucas countered. "Seems to me like you're still choking."

"That's my point exactly." His father said to him. "I don't want you and your brother to end up like me and mine."

"Not possible," Lucas told him. "And you want to know why? Nathan doesn't matter to me. Not the way, not even with all the bullshit you pull, you still matter to Keith. That's the difference. Keith, a part of him still loves you while the rest of him can't stand to look at you. I feel nothing for Nathan. The two of you are the same. You're still trying to beat us."

"He's your brother."

"And Keith's yours. Yet you still want to put him under your foot and step down. Says a lot about you. Don't it?

"This is done, Dan," Lucas went on. "I won't be like you. Fight it if you want, but it is over. I'm not backing down. I'm asking you right now to let me be."

Dan shook his head. "You are my son and you're going to be with me. You and Nathan are going to bury this-"

"This has gone up in flames." Lucas eyes went dark to almost black.

Dan pointed a finger at him. "You're brother had nothing to do with that."

"What about you?" He wanted to know. "People could have died. Do you understand that? Do you care? Keith could have died. Jake could have died. _I could have died._"

"_None of this would have happened if you were at home!" _The man raged.

"That an admission?"

"That is fact, little boy. I am you father," Dan went on. "I am your blood. I am your family." He shot a look at the woman with the gun.

"If my mom hadn't died," Lucas spoke. "I'd only know what you look like." He looked to MJ. "I'm going inside."

The woman nodded. "Haley's off in half an hour, she'll take you home. If you need to go sooner-"

"I can ask Peyton."

"He shouldn't be by himself."

"Oh you know me better than that, Daniel. Jimmy will beat us al home, so don't you go getting any ideas. That handsome husband of mine already wants to put a hurt on your sorry self for taking up space. Final warning. Carry yourself off my property and you stay away from that boy."

-

She liked holding him. Lucas burn was bad enough to have him taking pain medication for it. When his bandage had been changed, she had been able to see the damage. His back wasn't nearly as bad as his shoulder. His shoulder was burned down to the top of his bicep and as bad as it as, he wasn't going to need skin graphs much to Lucas's relief. He would be scarred, but he said that he could live with that.

They were in the James's den. A show was playing on the television, but neither one of them were paying it any attention. Reclined on the floor in front of the couch, Peyton idly stroked her fingers across Lucas's forehead. The whole concept was foreign to her sitting like this, touching without the pressure to make out or even the added pressure of having sex.

Being in love.

She liked feeling this want, and knowing that Lucas wanted her the same way and it wasn't just about sex. It was about them wanting to be together. It felt good knowing that he wanted her that away just the same as she wanted him and he wasn't pushing her to it.

"Nathan came to my house."

Lucas tried to move, but she stilled him. "When I stepped out of my house to come see you today, he was there."

"What did he want?"

"For me to tell you to leave his family alone before they start fighting back."

"They're coming after him because he has motive." Lucas blinked his eyes trying to stave off sleep. She wouldn't be here when he woke up. Her dad was home. Lucas wanted to savor the moment they were in right now. He liked being with her like this. He liked how she had to touch him. Breathing her in was going to spoil him, but he didn't care dammit. She was warm. She was soft. Her breath on him sent chills down his spine, her heart beating against his back was better than any massage.

Peyton may not say it, but she wanted to believe that one day her dad would come back. Just like he wanted to wake up one morning and to have it have all been a dream.

What he wouldn't give to wake up to his mom making him breakfast.

-

"This is bullshit, Dad."

"What have I told you about your mouth?"

Nathan stopped pacing and turned to look at his father. His face was etched with incredulity. "We had nothing to do with that place being torched to the ground, but the police and Lucas are determined to make it so. We did not do this."

"Where were you, Nathan?"

"What?" His eye grew wide. "Dad-"

"You know that I will protect you, but you need to tell me the truth. If this was an accident…" The rest of his father's words didn't even compute.

Nathan could feel his heart beat in his temples. His father didn't believe him. He had picked him. He had chosen him and he didn't believe him. He shook his head in disbelief. He was taking Lucas's side and the side of the F Troop over him?

"Screw you."

"Nathan-"

"That bastard spits in your face after all the things you've done for him. Bringing him to live here. Feeding him, putting clothes on his worthless back. You nearly lost mom because of it. _I _nearly lost my mother and you're choosing to believe the crap that Lucas and his 'family' are spouting?

"I do everything for you" Nathan felt damn near tears, but he would be damned if he let it show on his face. He didn't let it show in his voice either. He wanted to beat the hell out of his own father. "Do you really believe that I would do something like this?"

"I didn't believe that you would go after your brother the way that you did," Dan replied. "I was wrong."

Nathan swiped a hand angrily over the top of his head. He threw his fist, swinging at air. He turned back to his father, his steel blue eyes shot ice at the man who sat in his recliner like he was holding court over his kingdom.

"I was with Tim, Dad. Okay? While that house was being burnt to the ground, I was with Tim."

"You told this to the cops-"

"Yeah," Nathan snapped. "They didn't believe me either."

"They didn't believe you because either Tim didn't or couldn't back you. This is serious, Nathan, and your friend lying for you could get him into trouble not just you."

"You're defending Tim?" Nathan raised a brow. "Call the papers." Dan stared his son down until he exploded.

"I didn't burn that goddamn house down, Dad!" He told his father for the last time. "Did you?"

-

Lucas could never stay out of school long. There were the looks and the whispers, but he ignored them. When you were the talk of the town, being the topic of the school district or the object of whispers before you even started pre-school was nothing.

He'd missed too many practices, and with his injury, he could be out for the rest of the season. And that hurt. But what choice did he have. Regulations were regulations and while he wished he had Wolverine's ability to heal just like that, he didn't.

"Hey!"

Lucas's head jerked up and he smiled. He and Jake shook hands like they hadn't seen each other in years.

"Jake-"

"Yeah, don't mention it."

"You saved my life, and Keith's. I owe you."

"You would have done the same for me."

"In a heartbeat." He glanced down. "How are your hands?"

"Good. For the most part." He nodded. "Won't be shooting any baskets for awhile, so it looks like your brother will have to 'carry' the team." They were quiet. "Talk is that Dan or Nathan may have been behind this."

"What do you think?" Lucas wanted to know.

"If this happened ten years into the future, I would put my money on Nathan." Jake told him.

"But not now?"

Jake shook his head. "Now, Nathan is just Dan in training. Today, right now," he went on. "I would put my money on your father. I can't even imagine the lengths that he would go to get what he wants. But I've seen Dan pissed before, Luke. I've seen him blow up at your uncle. My dad had to pull them apart more than once."

"When was this?"

Jake lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "Eight grade maybe. Dan just kept coming. My dad had to physically throw him out of the garage because he wouldn't stop."

"He's not going to get away with this, Jake."

Jake looked Lucas over and nodded slowly. "No," he replied. "I don't suspect he is."

-

He couldn't practice so he watched from the bleachers. But as hard as he tried, Lucas couldn't keep his eye on the game. They kept moving from the scrimmage to the cheerleaders. Jake was over there in the mix watching with avid fascination and putting Brooke Davis on flutter patrol. She tried to play it off, but she couldn't. Not completely.

He watched as Brooke whispered something in Peyton's ear that made her smile. Then he froze. Turning slowly, Lucas locked eyes with his younger brother. He could have looked through him like he didn't matter in the least, but he didn't. He wanted Nathan to see all of it. He wanted his brother to see all the anger frustration that would kick his ass all over the gym if Nathan decided that he wanted to go there.

Tim stepped in the way breaking the standoff pulling Nathan back into the game as Whitey had told him to. Nathan shoved his friend off and Tim surprised them all by shoving Nathan right back. Whitey blew the whistle to stop them, but in the end teammates had to break them up. Lucas kept watching them both a long time after the fun was over.

"You want a ride, Lucas?"

"Please." He waited until they were in her car to ask. "Your dad?"

Peyton just shook hear head.

"I'm sorry."

"I am too." She replied. "Maybe one day I'll grow up and stop wishing for him to come back home."

"Or maybe one day he'll come home and never leave you again."

"I tried talking to him, Lucas, but I don't think that he even heard me. And I just don't know how much longer I can do this." Her voice went weak with emotion making Lucas sorry that he'd even asked.

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

She laughed almost sadly. "You can't fix this, Luke." She turned her eyes on him. "But I wish that you could. I wish that I could." Peyton reached out a hand, touching her fingers to his face. "Thank you," she said to him. "Thank you for caring."

"I love you, Peyton."

Every time he said it, it was like she was hearing it for the first time. She looked over at him, not surprised in the least that he was looking at her. They way his eyes moved over her, as if he was taking her in, making a memory, made her heart squeeze in the best of ways. She grabbed the front of his sweater pulling him toward her. The first kiss was merely a brush of lips. The second one more heated. She stopped them before the windows fogged up. She rested her head against his.

"I love you, too."


	15. Chapter 15

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Fifteen

_I love you, too._

Peyton's words kept playing over and over again in his mind as he lay in the dark of the James's den. She loved him. Peyton loved him. Hearing her say it had done something to him. Something that he didn't understand. Something that made him feel so much stronger than he used to be.

Lucas sat up on the couch, absently rubbing a hand over the top of his head. He had to see her. And if he didn't move now, he would be a sitting duck when the pain meds kicked in.

"You love struck moron."

Lucas froze just as he stepped into the kitchen. His plan was to go out the back. He had just pulled his sweater over his head when Haley had pulled open the refrigerator door. She pulled out the milk and drank straight from the carton. Lucas made a face.

"That's nasty."

"And mine." She pointed to where her name was scrawled on at the bottom of the carton. Lucas shook his head. "Where you off to? As if I didn't know."

"Look, are you going to drive me, or stand there in your dwarf attire teasing me?"

Haley looked down at her shirt where 'Grumpy' had his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. The caption under his feet read; "Who asked you?" She grabbed her dads keys from the rack near the entrance, and his jacket from the hook next to the back door as she and Lucas left.

"Just to let it be known," Haley spoke as she drove. "I'm not doing this to further your romantic notions." She told him. "I'm doing this because I'll never forgive myself if you passed out and killed yourself trying to get to Peyton Sawyer's house because you want to climb in to her window like Romeo climbed Juliet's balcony. What is it with you and cheesy romance?"

"Thank you, Haley."

"Don't mention it." He opened his mouth to offer some smart ass comment, she knew, so Haley cut him off at the pass. "No, seriously, Luke. Don't mention it. In fact, forget I even dropped you. Because if mom finds out that I did this, I'm dead and your ass is kicked."

Lucas grinned. "Why are you so good to me, Hales?"

"I know that's not a rhetorical question," she replied sarcastically. "You're mine, Lucas. And Peyton Sawyer is good for you." Haley lifted her shoulder in a shrug. "And you're good for her. I even halfway like her, she being a fellow smart ass and all."

"That the only reason?"

"You know it's not."

Lucas nodded. "You're mine too, Hales. They don't make best friends like you anymore."

"Damn right." She smirked. "One of a kind right here. You'd better be careful." She told him as they pulled up in front of Peyton's home.

"Call me if you need me."

"Thought you were worried about getting busted."

"I've already committed grand theft auto once tonight, what's one more count against me? I mean it, Luke. Call if you need to. Promise."

He winked. "Promise. Thanks, woman."

"Oh, you suck!" She glared then snickered because she couldn't run him over. She rolled her eyes as Lucas climbed on to Peyton Sawyer's car.

"Ms. Sawyer catches you doing that," Haley spoke to herself as Lucas used the hood of the car to climb on to the garage. "She'll punch you in your good arm."

Haley pulled away from the curb as Lucas made his way to the window with the light on. "Moron." She muttered shaking her head. Then she grinned as she watched her friend through the rearview mirror. "Flippin' Spider-Man of the burn unit. He's gonna bust his ass one of these days." Haley stopped herself laughing.

"Too late."

-

"_Happy Birthday, Peyton."_

"_Happy Birthday, baby girl."_

"_Thanks, Mama. Thank you, Daddy."_

They sat on the couch in the living room. It was her tenth birthday. Peyton knew that she was dreaming, but this one time she wouldn't make herself wake up. Not just yet. She just wanted to watch it, to feel it, for a little while longer. She clutched at her pillow tighter, but the dream slipped away until it was gone.

When Peyton opened her eyes they were wet with tears. She turned her face into her pillow and cried. She heard a tapping sound, then his muffled voice.

"Peyton."

She looked the way of the window, wiping her eyes. The tapping sounded again.

"Peyton open the window. Please?"

She didn't move, she just looked at him while tears still fell from her eyes. He couldn't take it. After the last time he called for her and she sat there frozen, Lucas tried the window for himself. It was locked. He tapped the window again.

She moved this time, pushing the sheets aside. She had her arms folded across chest. She looked like she was trying to hold it all in. Peyton opened the window then turned, walking back to the bed. She crawled under the covers, her back turned to him. Lucas was right behind her. He kicked off his shoes; it took longer for him to take off his sweater with only one hand. Then he was in the bed next to her, pulling Peyton to his chest so that he could hold her.

She turned to him, pushing her face into his shoulder. Lucas wrapped his arms around her and unconsciously rubbed his hands up and down her back while she cried. He rolled so that he was on his back, and she half on top of him. Kissing her forehead, Lucas murmured low words to her. Peyton didn't know what he was saying, she only cared that he was there and she wasn't alone with this.

The first thing she felt when she calmed down was Lucas slowly pushing his fingers through her hair. He felt his lips brush over her hair, across her forehead. Lastly, she felt the slow slide of Lucas's other hand up and down her back.

Her breath hitched as she wiped away tears with heel of her hand. "I find scuffs on my baby, you're a dead man."

Lucas laughed softly and she smiled.

"Please tell me that you didn't walk here, Luke."

"No." He rubbed his hand up and down her back some more. "Haley dropped me because she didn't want me to collapse and pass out on the street. But we're not supposed to tell Haley's mom that."

"You were coming either way, weren't you?"

She felt his shoulder lift in a shrug. "Couldn't sleep."

She pushed away from his body, just knowing that she was hurting him. "You climbed the garage with your shoulder in pain like that? You can't get better if you keep pushing it, Luke." Peyton looked at him lying there in her bed. It was nice. She couldn't help what she did next. Lifting her mouth from his, she murmured against his lips, speaking softly, "But thank you. I didn't know what I needed until I saw you."

"I don't like it that you're hurting."

"It's not fun." She lay down next to him. Lucas pushed himself up on his good arm and looked down at her.

"I don't like watching you hurt either, Luke." She told him. "Other than my dad and myself, and Brooke, I've never felt this incredible need to take care of someone. To try and make their pain go away."

"If I could make this better-"

"You can't."

"But I want to."

"I know." Peyton told him, brushing the back of her palm across his chest. "And that's what matters." She sighed. "I want my dad back, Lucas. So much, I want him back."

"Talk to him, Peyton."

"I've tried."

"Keep trying." He told her. "You want him back…keep trying. You don't know how bad I want to shake him and make him see, but I won't." He kissed her lips. "Because I'm not supposed to."

_I'm not supposed to._ Lucas told himself again.

_I'm not supposed to._

_-_

When she woke up the next morning, before she even opened her eyes, Peyton knew that Lucas was gone.

He'd held her all night long.

Their kisses were brief, more nuzzles than anything else. And while she had wanted to do more, she had been content with what they had. When they finally did go that next step, it would be right. It would be amazing.

_Talk to him, Peyton. You want him back…keep trying._

Keep trying.

She lay in her bed a few minutes more, mentally psyching herself up for what had to happen next.

He was in the backyard. Just standing there staring at nothing. She was standing inside the screen door when his head turned to the side as if he was acknowledging her presence. Unconsciously, Peyton pulled in a deep breath.

"Who was that boy in your room last night?"

She didn't lie.

"His name is Lucas."

"Least you aren't lying to me. Lucas what?"

"Scott. Lucas Scott." She replied.

"I need to be worried about you and this boy?"

"No, Daddy-"

"I don't want him climbing through your bedroom window again. You understand? Last thing I need-"

"What about what I need?" She pushed her way out the screen door. She moved down the steps off of the porch and out into the backyard to stand in front of her father. He looked the same, but not.

"You don't need some boy crawling into your window bringing more trouble that you don't need."

"We weren't doing anything, Dad."

"And I plan to keep it that way."

"Just how do you plan to do that when you're hiding on the back of some boat?"

The man's eyes narrowed.

"I have to work."

"I know that." Peyton told him. "I know it, but it doesn't change the fact that I hate living like this." She told him. "I hate living here in this house by myself whether you're here or not."

Larry Sawyer looked at his daughter, really looked. He hated the sadness that showed in his daughter's eyes. The same eyes that stared back at him when he looked in the mirror.

"_Goodness,"_ he heard Anna's voice echo in his mind. _"She has your eyes, Larry. I knew that she would._"

He shook himself back into the present. "I don't want that boy in your room again; do you hear me, Peyton Elizabeth?"

"Are you even hearing me?"

"Of course I'm hearing you. I'm standing right here." The man snapped. "Do you hear me?"

"I miss her, too."

"Peyton,"

"I dream about her, Dad." She went on. "The only difference between her being gone and you're not being here is that mom is dead, Dad. She can't come back whether she wants to or not. You choose not to come home and somehow that's hurts so much worse because you can be here."

"You don't know what you're talking about." The man's voice rushed out huskily. "You don't understand, and you won't until you lose the person you love most."

"Yeah? Well I already lost my mother, and I loved her more than my life, so I think I know a little something about what you're talking about. You might as well say that I've lost my father as well." Peyton started back in the house but turned around at the last second.

"Why do you even come back?" She wanted to know. "You obviously don't want to be here, so go. Leave. Because watching you cave in on yourself is like watching mom die all over again, and you'll have to forgive me for not being strong enough to go through that all over again."

-

"Hey boy."

Lucas looked over his shoulder then turned to face the man that coming toward him who was all sorts of pissed.

"You Lucas Scott?"

He knew who the boy was; Larry was just waiting for Dan Scott's son to lie to him. He had felt sorry for the little boy all those years ago with his mother dying and his daddy being every kind of bastard. But time had passed and Lucas had been raised by said bastard for the better part of his life. And he would be damned if his little girl got mixed up with this one.

"Yes, sir." Lucas replied respectfully. Larry watched as the boy's guard went up.

"You keep away from my daughter."

Lucas shook his head. "I can't do that, Mr. Sawyer."

"This is not a request," the man all but spat. "Peyton's heart is not strong enough to take what you could dish out. She's been though too much-"

"I know."

"Like hell." The man swore. "You don't know the half of it. Now you listen to me, and you listen good, because I'm only saying this once. My little girl will not end up like your mother."

"Excuse me." Lucas's whole body tensed. His fists clenched and everything inside him went cold.

"I knew your mama," Peyton's father went on. "And I mean no disrespect to her memory, but I don't trust you. You are that man's son."

"I'm nothing like my father," Lucas told him. "And I never will be. That you won't ever have to worry about. But I won't stay away from Peyton. Not unless she tells me to. I love her."

"You're barely out of pampers." The older man scoffed. "You don't know the meaning of the word." He pointed a finger at Lucas. "If you think that your slick words are going to get you easy access-"

"That's none of your business."

"That's where you're wrong junior. That girl is my daughter."

"Yeah," Lucas cut him off. "She's your daughter, but by the way you act you wouldn't know it."

That closed Larry Sawyer's mouth. What the hell did this kid know about having his soul ripped away? He wasn't even old enough to give it away. This boy and his daughter…They thought that they knew, but they didn't have a clue.

"You don't know a goddamned thing about me and mine."

"I can say the same to you." Lucas replied. "You think that just because I lived in that house, with that man, that I'm just the same as he is? I'm not. You've got the wrong brother; you've got the wrong son. You don't know a thing about me. You couldn't begin to even imagine a damn thing about my world.

"Do you know what it feels like not to be enough? My mother had to die before my father would even acknowledge me. No child should have to be put through that whether they're six or sixteen. Peyton should have you, but she doesn't. She should be enough. It shouldn't have taken me being with her and you not liking it for you to be a father."

Lucas turned and walked away, Peyton's father watched him as went into the diner cradling his left arm. He knew that his daughter's "boyfriend" was right, but he refused to let his mind replay the words that the young man had said.

-

Keith's eyes come open as the door softly clicked shut. He started to sit up, but the hand on his chest stopped him.

"No, big brother, don't get up."

"Hell are you doing?" Keith hissed. He fought him, coughing deep in his chest. Dan had one hand on his brother's chest and the other held the down the man's good hand. He squeezed and Keith's eyes caught fire with both pain and anger as the IV dug in his hand.

"You and me need to get a few things straight."

"You're going to prison," Keith spat. "That boy could have died!"

"I did not set that house on fire and neither did my son. Speaking of my sons," Dan went on. "If you think that I'm going to stand by and let you take Lucas away from me, you're weaker than you look."

"You don't have a choice. You think that attacking me is going to help you keep him?" Keith laughed then coughed harder. "You're just making everything that much worse. Sucks to lose, don't it?"

Dan snatched the IV from his brother's hand with much satisfaction. Keith grunted from the sting of his and bucked his body, trying to throw his brother off, but he still smiled.

"Sloppy, sloppy, Danny." Keith's voice went low. "You're just like that miserable sack. When He finally takes you, you're going to burn in hell just that same as him. You're going to have a spot right next to Royal. Lucas is going to be free of you. He's going to be my son."

"Like hell!"

"My boy! Choke on it! Nurse!"

"_Why is this door locked?"_ A stern, unfamiliar voice sounded in the hall. _"Somebody call security. Open this door!"_


	16. Chapter 16

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Sixteen

"Peyton Elizabeth."

She sighed. She did not feel like dealing with her father right now. She had said all that she need to say to him. Peyton kept he head down her eyes on the sketch she had started, not looking up when she felt her father standing just inside her door way.

"I don't want you seeing that boy anymore."

"Why?"

"You know why."

When she looked at him, it was barely a glance, one that had totally dismissed her father and his words. That pissed Larry off more than anything.

"I'm sure that Lucas may seem like a nice guy-"

"He's not Dan." She went on drawing. "That would be Nathan."

"I wasn't happy when you were seeing him either."

She lifted a shoulder in a negligent shrug. "Hard for me to know what to think and how you feel when you aren't here. I'm not seeing Nathan anymore. Be glad."

"Who do you think you're taking to?" Her father stepped into the room fully. "And my advice to you would to be to adjust your levels real quick, miss girl. Do you hear me? Now I'm telling you that I don't want you seeing Lucas Scott anymore."

Peyton tossed aside her sketch.

"Well I'm real sorry about that, but I'm not going to stop seeing Lucas just because you don't like him. I don't have any say in your life. Why should you have any say in mine?"

"We aren't arguing about this."

"You're absolutely right." Peyton agreed. "We aren't fighting about this. You don't want me with Lucas and I've decided not to care what you think. I love, Lucas. He's been there for me when I needed him to be. He's the one I've been going to when I should have been able to come to you."

"Yes, I heard from your 'boyfriend' about what a lousy father I am."

Peyton's mouth snapped shut on whatever she was about to say.

"I don't appreciate that little punk speaking on things that are none of his business." Larry went on. "This is between you, me, and what's left of our family."

_"I'm what's left of our family!"_ Peyton shouted and swallowed a sob. "That's what I've been trying to tell you, but it's not getting through. It's what you aren't getting. It's just me."

"I come home."

Peyton scoffed at that. That had to have been the biggest lie her father had ever told her. He stopped coming home along time ago. Peyton only recognized a small piece of her father when she looked at him now, and that was only because he was mad.

"You might as well stay gone." She told him. "Today, right now, is the most I've gotten out of you since mom died, Dad. And it's sad how someone from the 'outside' has to be the one to get you to open your eyes and see that you aren't the only one hurting. I don't understand? You're the one who doesn't understand and what's worse is that you refuse to."

-

"What was I supposed to do? Lie?"

Nathan slammed his locker shut then stormed out of the gym like Tim hadn't even spoken to him. He fully expected the upstart to follow and Tim did still trying to plead his case.

"This is serious, Nate. Arson. You could go to prison for that. You lie about something like that and it's like…perjury or something. And I'm not going to jail. Not for anyone. So if you did this-"

Whirling, Nathan shoved Tim hard in the chest, pushing him back a few steps. Tim came back shoving Nathan in his chest just as hard. Nathan shoved him again, then threw his bag down and balled his fists. Tim stood where he had been shoved.

"I did _not_ do this." Nathan's voice seethed through his clenched teeth. "I didn't burn anyone out."

"You said that you were going to get back at Lucas. You said that you were going to 'get him for all of it'."

Nathan almost laughed. "What about you, Smith?"

"What about me?"

"You or anyone in your family could have gone after Lucas-"

Tim moved fast as Nathan had ever seen him move. He pressed Nathan up against the wall of the gym, his forearm over his chest. His eye flashed. "My family is still paying for that everything that has happened to us; we're still trying to battle back. Don't you dare try and blame this on any one of them, or me, just because you weren't where you said you were."

"I'm starting to wonder why the police aren't looking your way. Too much exercise for them maybe. God forbid they loose any weight doing some real police work by exercising their minds. You don't like Lucas anymore than I do. And-" Nathan smirked. "With good reason."

"Maybe not, but I wasn't the one who followed him home and tried to beat the shit out of him because my girlfriend liked him better."

Nathan knew bait when he heard it, but that didn't stop him from taking it. He shrugged a shoulder. "I wouldn't call her that." He said. "Peyton was just a body to pass the time."

"And you barely got to third base."

He laughed at that. "Not like you to gossip, Smith. How would you know? You a cheerleader now? You in the know, or has your infatuation with Peyton jumped to obsession?"

"There's nothing going on with me and Lucas's girlfriend. There never has been and you know it. If anyone's obsessed it's you. You and your old man. Dan is out to possess your brother just like you're trying to beat him. He exists Nathan, and you're pissed because nothing you've done has changed it."

"Maybe I can't change the fact that Lucas breathes, but you don't have magic powers either, Tim. You're dad was a prison bitch. He was someone's wife until the day that he died, and all of that was because of Lucas."

Nathan started out of the gym, but turned back

"I forgot to ask. Where the hell were you, Tim? If you didn't light the match where were you when-"

"You did?"

-

_Goddamn Keith,_ Dan thought as he sat out on the porch of his home. His breath fogged out in front of him. He lifted the frosted bottle to his mouth and drank deeply.

_He's always wanted what was mine,_ he thought.

_He's always wanted what was mine because he's never been man enough to have anything of his own._

"And he never will be."

The judge hadn't granted Lucas's emancipation because he saw what Dan had saw all along. A boy who wanted someone else to be his father.

Keith.

Well that wasn't about to happen ever and Dan was happy about that. Beyond ecstatic. If his brother wanted kids, he had the equipment to knock up some woman. And more likely than not, she would be even less than Keith. Maybe that was what his brother was afraid of.

Dan hadn't gotten it all though. Lucas may not have been deemed an adult minor, but he didn't have to come home either. He could continue to live under Keith's roof. Lucas had shown the judge the pictures Keith had taken after Nathan and his brother had gotten in that fight and the judge had fully believed Lucas when he said that if he was "made to live" back under the same roof with Nathan, more of the same happen.

"_I'm not pulling back anymore."_ Dan remembered his oldest son saying. _"Nathan swings, I'm swinging back. And I'm not stopping until I can't swing anymore._

He took another pull on the bottle.

This was not how things were supposed to be. Had he had his way, Lucas wouldn't have existed. But he did. Had Karen not died, Dan wouldn't have known a damn thing about the child he'd fathered, and he would have preferred it that way.

But it wasn't.

He'd had that child in his life, and he loved Lucas. He loved his son just the same has he loved his brother. Dan wanted his son back where he was supposed to be. Back in his house with him, his brother and his stepmother.

They were a family.

He'd hurt his son last night, but Dan still wasn't completely sure that Nathan had nothing to do with Karen's house burning down. Nathan had done a lot of things that had surprised him. He'd always been so jealous of his brother, but there had been no reason for it. Dan loved the both of his son's equally.

He would be glad to know that his brother wasn't coming home.

He stayed where he was on the front porch watching as a teammate dropped Nathan off.

"You'll be happy to know," he told this son as Nathan tired to move past him and into the house without acknowledging his father sitting there. "That Lucas isn't coming back here."

"Maybe I should look into divorcing you myself."

"Lucas hasn't divorced me" Dan tipped his bottle again.

Nathan sighed. "You said that he wasn't coming back here. The rest of the planet speaks English. Maybe you should try it."

"How's this, and let me know if it isn't sinking in. Keep on and you'll be taking public transportation until you go to college."

"They'll believe in me more there than you do here."

"Oh I believe in you, Nate." Dan told him. "I believe that you despise your brother for reasons only known to you. I believe you capable of anything you put your mind to." He drank again.

"Learned from the best."

Dan nodded. "That you did." He told his youngest son. "You still haven't told me where were that night, Nathan. I suggest you do so. Now. And it had been the truth because this is serious."

Nathan stood there staring at the top of his father's head. He was all that the man had; his father just didn't know it yet. And why not? Why not tell the son of a bitch exactly where he was and let him choke on it?

Hell, he may not believe him seeing as he thought that his own son was a monster and zero faith in the fact that he wasn't. He should just blow his dad's world sky high and prove to him that he was evil attempted murdering bastard everyone believed him to be.

"I didn't burn down that house, Dad. You don't want to believe me, that's fine, but I'm not telling you where I was when that place got torched. It's none of your business, and you don't deserve it. Ground me. I don't care. You either trust me, or you don't, but you aren't getting what you want. Not this time."

-

Lucas sat on the steps of Keith's. He pulled at the tie around his neck, ran a hand through his hair.

Dammit…

Dammit.

"_I've been over the evidence and there is nothing I've found that shows cause for this emancipation. Lucas, your grades are good and have stayed good while both with your father and your uncle…Keith Scott._

"_Bottom line is we don't know who set that fire. And until we do, my decision can't be put on a maybe. So I've made this decision based on fact. I cannot grant you this emancipation. Your father is a good provider for you and this isn't about you being on your own. This is about you wanting another man to be your father. You may have good reason for it, but the fact still remains that not liking your father is no reason to get emancipation._

"_We don't get to choose a lot in life, and more times than not, who are parents are is one of those things. I've been watching out for you since your mother passed. Something told me that I would see you here. I just didn't think that it would be for this reason._

"_I can't grant you your emancipation, but I won't make you have to go back there either-"_

"_Now wait just a damn minute."_

"_Mr. Scott, refrain from speaking while I rule or I'll have you put out and you'll be reading transcripts to find out why I'm not mandating that your son be placed back under your roof."_

_Dan crossed his arms over his chest, but he tried to stare holes in the so called 'family judge'."_

"_I'm not putting you back under your father's roof because I believe you when you say that you and your brother do not get along. So I'm allowing you to stay under your uncle's roof. I know this isn't want you wanted, but this is the best that I can do, the best that can be done under the circumstances…"_

Lucas took off his tie completely and tossed it aside, he opened the collar of his dress shirt.

This wasn't the way that things were supposed to be. Lucas didn't feel free because he wasn't free. And what's more, his heart began to sink because the judge had been right. Lucas had been trying to right and injustice done him by using any means necessary to get Keith as his legal father.

He still felt wholeheartedly that that was the way that it was supposed to be. But Lucas hadn't wanted to be an adult. And that was what the emancipation had implied. He just wanted away from Dan and for Keith to be his dad. He'd wanted to be a real family.

Lucas wasn't sure what he wanted more. His mom alive or Keith as his dad.

He was tired. Completely worn down like the last of the fight had been drained out of him.

Beaten.

And that pissed him off. He found himself getting so mad a both himself and the situation. Lucas picked up a rock and threw it as far as he could into the woods across the street then clutched at his left arm as it has pulled with the motion.

Peyton found him sitting in the grass holding his arm with his head down. It had begun to rain long before, but Lucas hadn't noticed. She didn't know how long he had sat there. He was almost soaked to the bone.

He was hurting. She could feel it coming off him in waves.

Peyton was still angry. She wanted to scream and tell him what for because Lucas had no right to tell her father anything. He was trying to be there for her, she knew. But she didn't want him to be here on this. She needed this for herself. She needed to do this for herself. Peyton needed to know that her dad wanted to be there, needed to be there, because of her, because of them as a family, and not because someone on the 'outside' called him on the things that were true.

She kneeled down in front of him, touching a hand to the arm he cradled.

Lucas's head jerked up, his eyes going to Peyton in surprise. He looked over to where his car was parked then back at her.

Where'd she come from? And how did she know? How did she know that he needed her?

Lucas shook his head. "I was wrong." He said to her. He shook his head again. Rain water fell from the soaked strands of his hair as the rain fell harder around them. "I was so wrong…And now…"

Now what? She wondered.

"Come on, Luke." She urged him up.

Lucas stood slowly, his shoulders slumped. His head down, he still cradled his arm. Inside, he shook himself of what he was feeling and looked at Peyton over his shoulder.

"Who told you?" He spoke quietly.

"No one's told me anything." Not about why he was sitting in the rain beaten. "What happened?"

Lucas shrugged his good shoulder. "Didn't get my emancipation." He sighed out a breath. "But as a conciliation prize, I still get to live with Keith. But Dan will still have say so in my life."

He shook his head hard, looking away. "It was my fault."

"Why? How is this your fault?"

"The whole point of being emancipated is so that you can be a legal adult. To be on your own. I didn't want that. All I wanted was to be away from Dan and for Keith to be my father."

His laugh was self depreciating at best.

"I wasn't acting much like and adult was I? Wanting to trade daddies. I went the wrong way about getting what I wanted. Now I have to tell Keith. That is if Dan doesn't get to him first.

"I should have gone over there right after, but…"

"I'm sorry, Luke." Peyton spoke from behind him. "I know how much you wanted this."

"Want and need are two different things. I needed this, Peyton. And not just to get away from Dan."

"What else is there, Luke?" She crossed her arms over her chest as a chill moved through her. Water fell in slow drips from the tips of her own soaked hair. "What does that mean?"

"What if I'm just like him?"

_"You're not."_

"But it's in me to be. That guy is my father, Peyton. He's my blood. Nathan…Nathan-"

"Nathan is just like his father." She put in. "But he made that choice, Lucas. He chose to be that way. It's not just him being the way that his father is because that's what he's grown up with. You grew up with it too. Nathan stopped being innocent and incorrigible a long time ago. He hasn't chosen to change, but to keep on being the way that he is. That isn't you. It's not, Luke."

"Because I've been busting my ass to never be like him or his son. But I'm tired, Peyton. I'm so tired. I'm to the point…" Lucas clenched his fists as he felt the anger and rage boil in him. _"I'm to the point where I just don't give a fuck anymore!"_ He picked up the keys to Keith's truck and launched them across the room and on to the kitchen floor.

Hands pressed into the cool wood, Lucas leaned into the dining room table. "She said that his was going to be one of the hardest times in my life."

"Who said?"

His voice cracked hoarsely. "My mom."


	17. Chapter 17

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Seventeen

"Hospital security sure is lax."

"Take it up with your congressmen."

"Get the hell out of here, Danny." Keith sighed as he sat up in his hospital bed. He felt much better than the last time he and his little brother had words. He wanted to get out of bed and beat the other man's ass the way it needed to be, that's how good he felt at the moment.

He smiled then he laughed. Dan recognized the look in his brother's eyes. Keith was high on himself and ready to fight. What he loved most about reality was it's power to burst your bubble.

"Just came to give you some good news. Fantastic news. You lost." He smiled at how good it felt.

"Lucas is never going to be your son. He's mine. He was mine when then and he's mine now. You want a family? Find a willing woman and get busy because I'm taking my son and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it."

"You aren't taking Luke any goddamn-where, Dan." Keith shook his head laughing softly, and smiled.

"You know it just like I know it. You think that just Lucas's emancipation wasn't granted that we can't, we won't, be a family?" Keith laughed louder, his head tipped back on his pillow.

"You're pathetic." He said. "Lucas didn't get his emancipation, but that doesn't mean that he has to live back under that roof, your roof. _You lose_." Keith growled.

"You lose." He said again. "Lucas may not be my boy biologically, but science means shit. Lucas is my son in every way that matters, and it burns your ass that some judge can't rule it otherwise.

"Lucas is staying with me until he ready to be somewhere else. When I get out of here, he and I are going to rebuild what you destroyed like men."

"I didn't burn that house down and you know it." Dan finally spoke. "I didn't destroy that house and that's what kills you."

"You destroy everything you touch." Keith shot. "What kills me is that a piece of mom still inside of me is begging me not to hate your goddamn guts or write you off no matter what heartless bullshit thing you do. It kills me that I'm about to disappoint mom way more than you have ever in your life by saying 'fuck it'.

"I don't have a brother." He said to Dan. "Do you hear me, Danny? I'm done and you're gone. I quit. I quit you and I quit this war."

"Dad was right when he called you weak."

Keith shook his head. "Keep going, Daniel. You're only going to wear yourself out. Me? I'm beyond tired. But answer me this, weak or not. Do you really think that mama or daddy will stand behind you if they learned that because of you their grandson, me and someone else not even connected to his train wreck, could have died? Do you think that they would stand behind you then? Do you think that they will stand behind you now?

"Everybody in town seems to be hard of hearing." The other man smirked. "How many times do I have to say it? How slow do I have to speak for you to get it? I-did not-set-that-fire. And the evidence proves that because there is none. Oh, and before you make me an accessory, my son had nothing to do with it either. Getting tired of saying that, too."

"That I agree with you about."

"Really."

"Really." Keith nodded. "Nathan is too much of a coward. He attacked Lucas from behind remember? He doesn't have it in him to do something like burn a house down. Let alone his brother's home I don't care how much he hates him."

"Lucas's home is with me. It's with me, my wife and his brother. Lucas belongs with his family."

"He is with his family. It's not who your born with, it's who you choose. It's who you love. You never learned that. Blood is just that. Blood. You never learned that either."

"You should have died in that fire."

Keith hadn't believe his brother inhuman until he made that statement.

"You should have died in that fire, Keith." Dan said again. "And if I'd had my way you would have."

-

"It wasn't a dream. It wasn't a memory. It was real. My mom was there. I felt her. It was just after the fight with Nathan." Lucas sat down on the floor against the wall. "She told me that this was going to he the hardest time of my life and she was right.

"I keep telling myself that it's just two more years then he can't touch me, but a lot can happen in that time. Things that I have no control over either way."

"You don't have to go back there." Peyton put in. "You still get to stay with Keith. That's what the judge ruled."

"You think that's going to stop him? You think that Dan is just going to let that stand? You think that just because a judge said so that he's going to let it go? He's not going to leave me alone, Peyton?" Lucas shook his head.

_"Why can't he just leave me alone?"_

"You know that this is not about you, right? This is about your father and your uncle."

"I just want it to stop. I don't want to be apart of this mess. I didn't ask to be. This is their war, Dan's battle. All I want is to be free."

Peyton pulled in a breath. "You went to my dad, Lucas?"

He shook his head. "No. He came to me." He looked at her now. "I said some things."

She nodded. "Yeah, you did. Why? I didn't ask you to do that for me, Luke. I didn't want you to. I don't want you to."

"I know," he replied. "He was pissed and I only made it worse by refusing to stay away from you. He said that I was just like Dan and he would let you end up like my mother."

Peyton closed her eyes.

_Jesus, Dad._

"I wouldn't do that to you, Peyton." He told her. "Those aren't just words. I could never do that to you."

"I know it. And it's because you aren't him and you won't be, Lucas."

"I have to stay away from him, Peyton. I can't go back there."

She could see the fear. It was very real. It had never been about defiance, but about survival. Those who didn't know but thought that they did would say that Lucas was making too much out of this. But they weren't standing here right now. They were looking at a boy near defeat.

"What did you say to him, Luke?" She questioned him.

His head thudded back against the wall. "I told him that no child should ever feel like they aren't enough. I said that you should have him and that it shouldn't have taken him not liking us together for him to be your father."

She shook her head. "Lucas-"

"I know, Peyton. I should have kept my mouth shut and I'm sorry. But I couldn't. He thinks that I'm trying to get into your pants."

"Is that what he said? _Lucas_," she spoke louder when he didn't answer.

"No, he didn't use those exact words."

"What were his words exactly?"

Lucas shook his head. He hated it when they were said to him. They made what he felt for Peyton unreal and dirty.

"What did he say, Luke?"

"If I thought that my words were going to get me easy access."

She swallowed. "What else?"

"Nothing else." He lied. "I told your dad that we were none of his business. You know the rest. Peyton, I didn't-"

"It's fine, Luke." She told him knowing that he knew that is wasn't. "I didn't expect you not do defend yourself against my dad."

"But?"

"But…this is something that I have to do on my own. If my dad comes back, if he decides fight this and live the way that my mom would have wanted him to, it has to be because he wants it for himself. If he wants to be the father that I need, it has to be because he wants to, no, he needs to do it."

Lucas understood all about that. And it had never been his intention to make things worse with Peyton and her dad. But Larry Sawyer had been wrong on all levels, and Lucas refused to back down from him. It wasn't in him. Not when he had been talking stupid.

He went to her touching the wet curls of her hair. On impulse, Lucas kissed her and was more than relieved when Peyton didn't push or step away from him. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

They held each other, her arms around his neck, her fingers pushing through the wet hair at the nape of his neck. His around her waist, his fingers playing at the small of her back, sending shivers up her spine.

"I have to go." Peyton murmured. But she couldn't make herself move. Lucas nodded his accent, but he didn't move, didn't attempt to let her go. Lucas's hands moved from their spot at Peyton's back to cup her face. When she looked up at him he got lost.

"Lucas?"

He blinked, once, twice then brushed his lips over hers before resting this head on hers. "I didn't mean to things harder for you and your dad."

She nodded. "I know." But she was still angry, just not so much at Lucas. The thing that her father had said…

"I have to go." She told him again. Lucas nodded, and he didn't hold on when Peyton slowly moved away. She got as far as the door and had her hand on the know when she stopped, looking back at him.

"You're stronger than you father, Lucas." Peyton told him. "You know that. Dan can't beat you because you won't stay down the way that he needs you to. You know that, too."

Then she was gone. Lucas stood at the window watching at her car moved down to the end of the street, then turned the corner not to be seen again.

-

Peyton slammed into the house. She found her father sitting in the living room. It was getting dark, there was barely enough light to see him. Larry rose when his daughter stepped into the room. He moved to the nearest lamp and switched it on.

"Goodnight, Peyton Elizabeth," he spoke as he took in his soaked, and very pissed off daughter. "You're going to catch your death if you don't get out of those."

"How dare you?" The words croaked from her throat. "How _dare_ you say the things that you said to Lucas_? You had no right-_"

"I had every right!" Larry shouted. Peyton jolted at the bark in his words, but her eyes,_ his eyes_, never wavered.

"Lucas Scott is trouble."

"You don't know him!"

"He's way more trouble that his brother and I will not have you in the same boat as his mother, Peyton."

"Ohmi-_I'm not having sex, Dad!"_ She yelled.

"Oh no?" He tossed her a plastic case. When she caught them in her hands, Peyton got pissed all over again.

"You find my birth control pills and think that I'm just automatically out there giving it up to just anyone?" She threw the pills back at him. "You suck as a detective, Dad. I've been on the pill since I was fourteen." Peyton told him. "And guess what? Yep, still a virgin."

"Why have them? Why take them?"

She laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. "I like the regularity. One of the few things have control over in my life. That's my big secret. Like my periods reliable." She replied sarcastically. Peyton reached into her bag and pulled out her pocket book. "I started yesterday on the third by the way. Just like clock work. You want to see where I wrote it down?"

"That's enough."

"While you fishing around my contraband, did you find any condoms? No?"

"I said that's _enough_."

Peyton snatched her pills from her father's hand and then ran upstairs. She didn't even bother slamming her door.

When Larry made I to his daughter's room she had a bag halfway packed.

"You aren't going anywhere."

"Call the cops," she told him. "Report me. Either way, I'm not saying here in this house with you right now. If I do," she looked at him. "I'm going to end up hating you, and that's a million times worse that you being gone, than you being dead."

"I have to protect you, Peyton. I'm your father."

"I don't need protecting from Lucas." She told him. "He loves me, Daddy. And I love him, even if you don't think that we're capable of it. He doesn't pressure me into sex, he doesn't call me a tease if all I want to do is kiss. I'm not just some cheerleader dating a jock with him. He listens to me, Dad. He's not trying to get _in-to-my-pants,"_ her eyes flashed.

"That boy has told me that he loves me, shown me that he loves me and not one time did he use his words or his actions for 'easy access'."

She smiled absently as she shoved more clothes into her bag. "He blushes around me, Daddy. I make him just as nervous as mama made you. He respects me. I'm not property."

"Sounds too good to be true."

"Oh he's real. Lucas is very real. And he's not perfect. But he has never hurt me."

"There's a first time for everything."

"Yeah," she replied softly. "There is." Peyton hefted her bag on her shoulder and looked at her father who stood in the door way to her room looking haggard.

"I'm going to Brooke's." She said to him crossing her arms over her chest. She shook her head. "This isn't really about me and Lucas, is it, Dad? This is about you and the fact that you're afraid. You aren't the only one. I'm scared to death too." She stepped around him and started downstairs talking to herself.

_"Only in Tree Hill could so many people have daddy issues." _ He heard his daughter say before the door close behind her.

-

"This is bull!" Haley bit down on her tongue.

"It's two years and then your father will have no say in what happens in you life." MJ tried to soothe. But she knew just like Lucas did that Dan would take advantage of the situation, insinuating himself in every aspect of Lucas's life, doing what he had to do in the time limit he had to get Lucas back where he wanted him.

Jimmy put a hand on his shoulder. "Walk with me, Luke."

They didn't go far, only out on the porch. The rain was still falling hard. It splattered on to the overhead of the porch. Luke's fear had been replaced by anger. Jimmy watched as the boy kicked a hole in the wood of the porch. If he could have torn the banister from where they stood with his bare hands, Jimmy knew that Lucas would have done it. That's how angry he was.

"I keep trying to tell myself that I wasn't using my Uncle Keith to get away from Dan."

"You're too smart to be talking stupid thoughts." Jimmy told him. "You weren't using Keith to get way from our father. You love that man like he's your dad. You wanted to be with him. Nothing wrong with that, Lucas."

"I didn't get the emancipation because I wanted somebody else to be my father, because I wanted to be someone else's son and not a legal adult. I went the wrong way about things, Uncle Jimmy."

He clapped Lucas on his shoulder. "Takes an adult, a man, to admit when he's made a mistake, Lucas. You may not be ready to be an adult out there on your own, but I'd say you're a head of the game."

"I messed up with Peyton," Lucas went on. "I made things worse with her and her dad." He shook his head. "I should have kept my mouth shut and-" He huffed out a breath.

"Nobody's perfect, no matter how hard we try to be." The man laughed, snickering at the back of his throat. "I can't tell you how many times I spouted off to M.J.'s father. That man and I still don't get along."

Lucas looked over at him. "Was she your first?"

Haley's father nodded. "First girl, first love, first time. And I messed it big." Remembering, Jimmy pulled in a breath.

"I cheated on her, Luke." He told the boy. "I was scared because I saw every bit of my future in that girl's eyes and I wasn't ready for it. I was barely sixteen. My bother, I looked up to the guy, but he had been married three times and I didn't want to be like him. He was looking for what my parent's had. I was too young to trust in what I had with MJ then. I didn't trust in it enough, in us enough to believe that it was the real thing and what my brother had been looking for all along, what I wanted just the same as him when the time was right."

"But you're together now."

"Yeah. We are. And I had to fight for her. I had to prove to that woman in there that I was the man for her and she didn't make it easy. I'm telling you this because I want you to see how bad things can get, not to scare you. This thing with you and your girl, you can fix it. You can make it right."


	18. Chapter 18

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Eighteen

She rolled to her side. Sleep wouldn't come. She couldn't stop thinking about Lucas or her dad.

Peyton was so mad at him. She could not believe the things that he had said. She knew that Lucas hadn't given her all of it. That ticked her off too, but not so much because she knew that Lucas was protecting her, that he didn't want her to look down on her father.

He was so wrong. So wrong about so many things. And he owed Lucas an apology.

So did she.

But she couldn't apologize if Lucas was keeping his distance from her. Still, even after what had happened days before…

_When she closed her locker, she turned only to be wrapped up in him. Her bag fell, dropped to the floor, her hands automatically going to his wrists reflexively as Lucas held her face in his hands, their foreheads pressing against each other's softly._

_Peyton breathed him in deep, her eyes closing as she relished in his familiar scent. Her breath shuddered slowly from her body. When she opened her eyes she was staring into the vivid blue depths of Lucas's gaze._

"_What's going on, Luke?" She asked._

"_I'm sorry."_

"_What's going on?" If he was breaking up with her, then she wanted to hear him say it. She needed to hear him say it._

"_I'm trying to give you space to make things right with your dad."_

_Her heart picked up, her hands tightened on his wrists. "You're giving him just what he wants by staying away from me, Lucas."_

_He pushed his hands into her hair. "I'm not doing it for him, I promise you." Lucas told her. "I'm doing this because I know what you need your dad, and with him unable to use us as a reason not to fight, he'll have to listen to you and what you've been trying to say to him."_

_She sighed. Peyton knew that he was right, but that didn't mean that she had to like it. It didn't mean that she had to like the situation._

"_I need this, too." Lucas admitted. "I don't like the way that I have been feeling lately and I don't want you to be around it. I don't want t be around it myself._

"_You're giving up." She accused. She saw it in his eyes that Lucas was near the end and holding on by his fingertips. The look was overcome by fierce determination that made his eyes glow. He shook his head._

"_No," he spoke quietly. "I'm not giving up. I'm not giving in. It's just…hard. Some days are worse than others." He rubbed his palms up and down her arms._

"_I'm not giving up," he told her again. "But there isn't much left."_

"_How long to do you plan to stay away, Luke?"_

"_It's already been longer than I can stand."_

He wasn't staying away from her because he wanted to, it was because he needed to. Peyton kept telling herself that, but even knowing it didn't make their situation any better. She supposed that she should understand. This thing with him and his emancipation was something that Lucas had to deal with on his own.

Just like she had to deal with this mess with her father on her own.

She could hear he mom's voice in her head.

"_Peyton Elizabeth, what on God's Earth? What do I have to do, clunk your fool heads together? You and your father need to be with each other in times like this. Not on opposite sides. This is not the way your daddy and I raised you now is it?"_

"No mama, it's not." She spoke into the dark.

The bed moved under her. Absently, Peyton looked over her shoulder. The bed side lamps switched on seconds later.

Brooke pushed up on her elbow. Over her eyes she wore a scarlet red sleep mask with the word 'Diva' scrawled over the top in silver glitter. It was a much needed accessory to her pajama set of the same scarlet red color. 'Diva' was brazenly written across the chest of the set's spaghetti strapped tank as well.

She pushed the face mask from her face. Bleary hazel eyes scanned the room and then looked at Peyton. She looked at her friend, her alarm clock then back at her friend again.

"Who are you talking to?"

"No one."

Brooke looked back at the clock then at Peyton. She pointed to her own face. "Do you think that this master piece of beauty is maintained on scant amounts of sleep?"

"No," Peyton replied slowly. "I know it's maintained my the army of cosmetics that have taken over your bathroom." She frowned up at her friend then narrowed her eyes accusingly.

"Do you even know what 'scant' means?"

"It means, Ms. Smart-Ass, that Brooke Davis, beautiful bitch that she is, still needs her beauty sleep. And I can't get that until you got to sleep. What's on your mind, Blondie?"

Peyton sighed. "Lucas. My dad. I miss them. Luke is staying away because he doesn't want to give my dad a reason not to deal and because of the thing with his dad and his blown emancipation, the choice that he made…" She sighed again.

"Why do things have to be so damn hard?"

"I don't know." Brooke replied. "If things were easy then Jake Jagielski would be putty in my hands."

"You know, you could just ask the guy out."

"What fun would that be? Especially when I can entice that sexy piece of boy candy into being the one to ask me."

"He may be thinking the same thing. You're notorious, Davis."

"What did I tell you about using big words to call me a tramp?" Brook poked her. "If you want to call me one, say sit so I can call you skeeze and get it over with, Skeeze."

"I'm not calling you a tramp." Peyton grinned. "What I'm saying is that if you picked five random guys from the freshmen to the seniors and asked them who Brooke Davis was, four out of five would know and have their tongues hanging out of their heads."

Brooke smirked. "Four out of five ain't bad."

-

He sat on top of the Rivercourt picnic table, his ball sat between his feet on the seat below. That cold air that came off the water blew his hair into his eyes.

He'd come to blow off some steam, some frustration after Dan had paid him a "visit," but it hadn't worked. Instead his mind kept jumping to the first time he had kissed Peyton. His fingers tingled and his want for her nearly choked him. And he would just have to let it.

For now.

He wasn't about to let her dad us them as a reason not do deal with what was going on with him and his daughter.

"I'm not going to give Larry Sawyer what he wants." Lucas told himself over and over again.

He hadn't been back to see Keith since the judges ruling. He'd already known. Lucas hadn't been mad at Haley's parents for telling Keith. They did what he couldn't. He had to get back and see his uncle though. He had to tell him why. He had to admit to his mistake. He had to apologize.

Lucas ran a hand over his face. In the short time he had known his mother, she had never lied to him, and he was going to do his best to do right and make her proud now. He ran his hands through his hair.

He needed her. God, needed her, so much, so bad, but he had to stay away. He had to let her do this. She needed this and this was the only way that Lucas knew how to help her.

But dammit.

Goddammit.

He didn't know how much more he could take. It was like the world was constantly at him, and he was fighting them at every turn. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Peyton's face, her eyes and he killed him that he had to stay away from her.

Unable to sit any longer, Lucas stood. He held the ball behind his head, pressed to the back of his neck as his face was tilted to the cold winter sky. His breaths, blew out in a fog in front of him. He paced the middle of the court his eyes moving from one basket to the other.

"I know what I need to do," Lucas spoke. "Just gotta mad up and do it."

Lucas turned to leave and stopped. Nathan stood in the grass before the blacktop his hands shoved into the pockets of his lettermen jacket. Lucas ignored him and started off the court like his brother hadn't shown up, like he wasn't even there.

"You know you did me a favor," Nathan spoke stepping on the court. Lucas kept walking and Nathan followed him smirking when he really wanted to grind his teeth and pummel the bastard into dust.

"You never belonged you know." He went on. "You were just bring my family down by eating away at our lives like cancer. But you're gone now and we can come back. So thank you."

Nathan laughed.

"Never thought that I would be saying those words to you, but thank you Lucas, bastard son of the Scott family for finally seeing the light."

The bastard bomb stung, and Lucas tried to ignore it, but he couldn't and he was damn tired of faking it. He stopped walking and turned back to his brother.

"You're scared." He said. " You're about to piss your pants like a two year old you're so terrified. No matter how much you say it, Nathan, it's not going to be true. Not right now and maybe not ever. You aren't coming back. Your 'family' is not coming back from this and it has nothing to do with me. Deb's already jumped ship."

He stared. "That's what you want isn't it?"

"It's not what I want. That would make me you. Pathetic. It's what is."

"You shut your lying mouth." Nathan seethed.

"I'm not lying and you know I'm not." Lucas spoke over him. "It's why you're here, right? This isn't going to solve anything."

"Shut up…"

"You can't fix this, Nathan."

_"I said shut up!"_

Nathan ran at Lucas. If he needed help closing his face, Nathan had no problem heling him out. Lucas didn't even try to move out of the way. When they hit the ground, Nathan started swinging.

"Shut up! You shut up! Stupid bastard! Shut up! Shut up about my mom!" He slammed his fist in to Lucas's messed shoulder. He wanted him to hurt and hurt bad. Nothing would please Nathan more than to make this nobody, this nothing hurt something awesome. It's the least that he could do for his father's biggest mistake since the bastard had ruined so much.

Lucas threw his forearm smashing it into Nathan's face and he was happy with the yowl of outrage the came of it and the pain that he knew that he had caused. Lucas swung once, twice, three times then pushed Nathan off him. Standing he clutched at his shoulder. Nathan started to get to his feet and Lucas helped him out. He grabbed his brother by the collar of his jacket pulling him the rest of the way up to his feet, then reached back, let loose and slammed his fist into his brother's face. The force of it sent Nathan falling into the wood of the picnic table.

Lucas shook his hand then made a fist. Nathan glared hotly up at him as he caught his breath. He was even more enraged that nothing showed on Lucas's face. Not anger, not pain, nothing.

"You feel better? Huh? It still doesn't change a damn thing. Like I said, it is what it is. You're just going to burn yourself out trying to 'make things' right."

"Funny that you mention that word. Burn." Nathan smirked when he got his reaction. He wiped a hand under he nose. "You know my dad didn't start that fire."

"Do I?"

"Yeah," Nathan nodded. "You do. See, the way I see it, the way the cops will see it soon enough, is that you set that fire to make sure that your divorce went through. Didn't work now did it?"

"You could wish on every star and step over every crack, but that won't change facts." Lucas eyes went nearly black as if on cue when he remembered where he was, and who had been with when his home and been burned to the ground.

"You're dirt," Lucas told him. "And if you ever hurt Peyton again, I'll snap you like a twig."

Incredulity etched across Nathan's face. He laughed out loud. "Oh this is great. You like leftovers too, huh? If I didn't know any better, I would think that you were Keith's son. I mean because after my dad had your mo-"

Lucas swung again and Nathan flew up landing on the picnic table hard enough to wrap his head against the old wood. He was seeing more and more that no matter what it took he would fight not to end up like the piece of trash his brother was, or the filth that was his father, their father.

It was in him because Lucas wanted to cut Nathan down with what he knew about his mother. He wanted to show him that he could be every bit the bastard Nathan had him wanted to pinned him out to be in his own screwed up mind. But Lucas was determined to be better. Not because of Keith or because of his mom, but because it was so easy to be that rat bastard. It was so easy to become them.

And he was never going to take the easy way out again in life.

"You keep my mother's name out of your mouth or your going to learn what it's like first hand to choke on your own teeth. You hear me, _Nate_?" He mocked out the shorter version of his brother's name.

"You need me to say it again after your ears stop ringing? No? Here it is again anyway. Say one more word about my mom and you'll be instant messaging until they cut the wire from your jaw."

-

"I was wondering when you were going to come back and see me, Skywalker." Keith eyed his nephew and sighed.

_At least he wiped the blood off his face._

"When they cutting you loose?"

"Soon or I'm breaking out of this place. The food sucks and I seem to be getting all the man nurses." Lucas felt himself smile and Keith laughed. Then he sobered.

"Look, Lucas," he began. "I know you had all your plans hinged on this emancipation-"

"I made a mistake."

"Mistake?"

He nodded. "I went the wrong way about getting away from Dan. I was so focused on getting away from him and us being a family that I took the easy way out. I tried to take the easy way out and it blew up in my face."

"Nothing about that man is easy, Lucas." Keith told the boy. You did what you had t do. Dan still may be legally responsible for you, and you can bet that he is going to use that to his advantage. He wouldn't be Dan if he didn't. But you did not take the easy way out of anything. You hear me? That man may have won the battle, but he'll lose the war.

"You don't have to go back there, and in two years you will be a legal adult and he won't be able to touch you. You'll go away to college and be more than him, your brother and that goddamn game they think is the Holy Grail. You're going to make it Luke. And you're always going to have me, Jimmy, MJ and that feisty daughter of theirs in your corner.

"We got you," he said. "You just can't give."

Lucas shook his head. "I won't. But you should know that I wanted to. You gotta know, Keith that I was ready to throw it all away and just say to hell with all of it. I'm scared that I will end up just like Dan and Nathan no matter how hard I try not to. But I'm not going to stop fighting it."

"Why?"

"Because it would be too easy."

Keith tilted his head back and laughed. He clapped his hands and blew a shrill whistle that had a nurse looking in on them.

"Yes!" He said. "Your mom, god bless her beautiful soul, said just the same. When Dan denied you all those months she was pregnant with you, she could have said to hell with it and let him keep on the way that he was. But she fought. Got him tested, and the results came back saying that he was your father, what your mother already knew…she could have made him pay out of the nose for you. That's what he expected that because that's what he would have done.

"Instead Karen told him to kiss her ass the best way she knew. She took care of you on her own and you lacked for nothing. She didn't try and push some man other to be your father. You had me and Jimmy. We knew that it still got to you, because Jimmy had kids of his own and I wasn't your dad-"

"I didn't need him."

"Yeah you did. And him only claiming you after your mother died just made it worse because you wondered what was wrong with you that he couldn't love you the way that he loved Nathan. No kid should have to put up with that, Luke.

"It takes a man to admit when he's wrong, when he's made a mistake. Dan's not a man."

Lucas nodded unable to speak.

"We will get there." Keith told him. "He's your father and we can't change that, but I'm your dad. We may have to wait until your eighteen birthday, but we will make it legal. If you still want it."

"I'll want it."

"Then that's all that matters."

-

"You can't fix things with your dad if you're hiding out at Brooke's."

_"I am not hiding out."_

"No?"

_"No. I don't want to say anything that I won't be able to take back is all."_ Peyton's voice paused over the line. "_He's not going to budge on you and me."_

"I don't care." Lucas told her. "Only way I'm staying away from you is if you tell me to."

_"Never going to happen."_ She spoke softly. _"I love you, Lucas."_

He closed his eyes. He was never going to get tired of hearing Peyton say that no matter how long they lasted.

_"I love you, too."_

He heard her smile over the line. _"Good."_

Lucas laughed and she did too.

_"You should really do that more often."_

"What?"

_"Laugh."_ She replied. _"I mean the whole lone wolf works, but so would cracking a smile every once in awhile."_

"Hasn't been a whole lot to smile about lately."

_"Do you ever ask yourself why it's so hard?"_ She wondered aloud. _"It seems to be the only question my brain can come up with."_

"It's going get better."

_"How do you know?"_

"I don't think that things can get much worse."

Lucas didn't stay at the James house that night, rather, he went home to Keith's and pulled out the couch bed. He just needed to be back under his own roof, and since that was going to be a while down the road, Keith's place was the next best thing. When he finally closed his eyes and drifted off, Peyton was on his mind. He needed her, but she needed her father more.

What was it going to take for Larry Sawyer to see?


	19. Chapter 19

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Nineteen

He couldn't keep from touching her hair, her face, her mouth.

School. That was it. It was the only place Lucas would allow himself to see her, touch her, be anywhere near Peyton the way that he needed to be.

Barely.

They sat in the grass under the tree. Their tree. Not speaking, just being. Lunch only lasted so long. Her back was to his front as they leaned against the trunk of the tree. Lucas could smell the apple scent of her shampoo she'd washed her hair with mixed in with the cold on the air.

He looked over her shoulder as she drew.

"Aren't your fingers cold?"

"No." She shook her head. Lucas touched his fingers to her hair. He pushed the silky, curly mass away from the side of her face, pressing a kiss to her neck. Peyton smiled.

"This isn't pulling your arm is it?"

"No. No, this is good."

So good.

Putting her pencil down, Peyton reached for the hand that touched her cheek. She held it in hers, frowning as she ran her fingertips over the Lucas's bruised knuckles. She felt a shudder move through him, but she wasn't sure if was from the cold or from her touching him.

Was it good or bad?

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Luke."

"Nathan was scared; is scared." Lucas corrected. "He took it out on me. I let him and took something out on him, too."

She turned to look up at him and he couldn't help but stare down into those funny colored eyes.

"He thinks that I set that fire to push the emancipation my way." Lucas said to her. "Then he started in on my mom…" He lifted his shoulder in a shrug, keeping the grimace off his face.

"When he becomes a big time NBA basketball player, he can pay some plastic surgeon ridiculous wages to make his face all pretty again."

"If I ask you to stop fighting with him, will you?"

Lucas was silent. Peyton went on. "I don't mean stop fighting to be better than him and Dan. I now how much you need it. I know how much you need not to be like them. Just…when Nathan comes at you like that, walk away."

"Easier said than done."

"I know, but I'm scared for you, Luke."

"You don't have to be."

"But I am." Peyton ran her fingertips over his bruised knuckles again. "I'm going home tonight." She told him.

"Try and talk to my dad again. Maybe if I tell him that I need him he'll stop deflecting on us and try to come back. This can't be the end, Lucas. It can't." She shook her head.

"It can't be. I don't want to lose my father; I don't want to hate my dad."

"I wouldn't recommend it." Lucas told her. "Hating your father, hating anyone exhausts all energy."

"God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"I know. Don't worry about it. Thing is, I don't hate Dan. I used to. I know better now. It's just...I just hate what he is and what he does. The man's my father, but that doesn't mean anything. Not if I don't want it to, and I don't. Not since I was old enough to understand."

He held her tighter against him. "This isn't the end, Peyton." He whispered in her ear, kissed the side of her face.

"Your dad wants to come back, and he will. He will come back for you and to your family."

Peyton turned in Lucas's arms pressing her face against his.

"I know why you're doing this, Lucas, and I love you for it," she said to him. "But enough it enough. Stop being so damn noble."

His laugh was strained.

"I hate being away from you." Peyton whispered. "I need you."

Jesus. This girl, this girl… Lucas wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his face into the side of her throat.

_His girl._

Peyton's pulse beat wildly against lips. Lucas pulled back reluctantly. "I don't want to be away from you, believe me." He told her. "But I won't give him an out. I won't give him a reason. You need him too much. More than you need me."

She was shaking her head. "I know what you're trying to say, but Lucas-"

"No. About what I said to him," He kissed her when Peyton opened her mouth to speak. He tired to pull away and she followed his lips down until they were kissing against the tree.

"Stop…" Lucas's voice ground out in sweet agony. He held her face in his hands.

_Jesus._

Their chests rose and fell with hard breaths.

"I need to say this, Peyton."

She nodded. "Say it."

Lucas closed his eyes and counted to ten before he began again. He would have moved away from her, but he didn't want to.

"What I said to your dad…I didn't have to say it. I could have walked away. Yeah, I was defending myself, and I wasn't making up stories, but I should have handled it better. Better so it wouldn't have some back on you and what you needed. What you need.

"I don't ever want you to have to wonder, Peyton. Not about your dad."

"I was mad at you." She admitted. "I was mad at you, but I never expected you to just sit there and take it. I never expected you to just take the things my dad threw at you." She pulled in a cold breath of air.

"I felt like you were trying to fight my battles." Peyton told him. "And I was going or rip into you. Then I saw you and you were hurting…"

"You have to do this yourself."

"Yeah," she nodded. "And so do you."

"Say it again, Peyton."

She smiled. "Say what?"

"You know what."

"Most definitely." She nodded. "I just want to hear you say it."

"Love you, Peyton Sawyer."

"I love you, too."

That dimple winked out in his cheek when Lucas smiled. "Good."

-

"Thought that she was just another body to pass the time." Tim's gaze moved to where Lucas and Peyton were huddled under a tree together. He looked back at Nathan. He had his hand jammed into his pockets and was glaring daggers across the quad at Lucas and Peyton.

Lucas knew.

_He knows,_ Nathan thought. _He knows about my mom._

How? That's what Nathan wanted to know. How did that guy know what was going on? It was taking him over. He was obsessed. He had to know. He had to know what Lucas knew and he had to make sure that he kept his damn mouth shut.

Once again his father's mistake was playing games with his life an the life of his family. Why couldn't he just leave and stay gone? Why did everything with his father's mess have to come back to mess with them?

"Cops pay you a visit, Smith?"

"You get off on this, don't you?"

"They shouldn't be looking at me or my father when they have you or someone in your family as much better suspects."

"I could just beat your ass right her and now."

"Right. Okay." Nathan shook his head. "I'm not afraid of you, Smith. No one is afraid of you. They should have been looking your way in the beginning. Your dad is the reason that his mom is dead, and Lucas is the reason why your dad isn't coming back ever. And that right? Tell if I missed something, Tim."

"Fucking, bastard!"

Tim slammed into Nathan and the both of them flew into the side of the school.

"Hurt my mother!" Tim shouted as he swung and kept swinging. "You hurt my mother!" All his shots were being blocked, but Tim kept on. He kept swinging until someone pulled him off.

Lucas grabbed Tim by the back of his collar and pulled him off Nathan. He didn't know why he did it. Instinct maybe and that pissed him off because Lord knew that Nathan needed his throat stomped.

Tim whirled swinging. His shot glanced of Lucas' jaw making his teeth click. "Dammit." He swore.

"Keep your damned hands off me."

"You're welcome."

"I didn't ask for your help." Tim told him. His gaze moved toward Nathan again. "You leave my family alone, you leave them be."

"Or what?" Nathan taunted as he stood. Tim went for him again, but Lucas stepped in his way. Tim shoved him and Lucas shoved right back.

"Oh this is just great!" He laughed. "The Scott brother's finally united and at my expense."

"Leave it alone, Tim." Lucas warned him. "Not even Nathan is worth it."

Nathan scoffed. "And people really believe that you're the smart brother." He shook his head. "You're so hot for the fire starter to be me or my dad. I say it was you. Or Tim. I mean, he has the motive and so do you."

"Never going to fly, Nathan." Lucas said to his brother without taking his gaze off Tim. He stared Tim down until he left, then Lucas looked at his brother and said, "Your yellow is showing."

"I'm not afraid of you." Nathan told him.

"You're afraid of something."

-

It was dark when Peyton finally went home. Her father's truck was in the drive. This was it. She had to make him see and that mean giving it all and not holding back. Peyton was afraid. She was afraid that reaching out could and would mess her world royally.

"Dad?"

No answer.

She found him sitting out in their backyard on the bottom step of the porch. He scrubbed his hand over his face. Peyton opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

"I hope to God you can hear me." Her father's gruff voice spoke quietly into the dark.

"God," he laughed sadly pushing a hand though his hair. "I stopped believing in him you know. He took you away from me, away from out daughter. She's so beautiful Anna. And she's got a mouth on her." His laugh was lighter now as if he really was talking to someone, his wife, her mother.

"She's your daughter," he smiled shaking his head. "If it's the truth and He isn't supposed to give your more than you can handle then he messed up big with us because I don't know if I can do this, Anna. Peyton's half grown. She was right. I've been hiding, not dealing with your death well and because of that our baby has been living all alone. Bet you want to pop me on, huh, gorgeous? I wish that you were here right now. You would tell me what to do." He smiled again.

"I can hear your voice right now_. Lawrence Thomas, what on God's Earth? _God, I miss you so much…"

"I miss her too, Daddy."

At the sound of his daughter's voice, Larry glanced over his shoulder then quickly away, but not before Peyton saw fresh tears on her father's face. He wiped them away with shoulder in such a guy way as he stood.

"You came home."

"I miss her too." She repeated. 'I dream about her. Sometimes I swear I can here her voice. We never talk about her."

Larry looked own at his hand. "Yeah. Hiding out on that back of a boat makes it kind of hard to have a conversation. No, don't apologize. You were right."

"I wasn't going to apologize."

He smiled a small smile at his daughter's words.

_God Anna, look at her…_

"I'm sorry then. About so many things. I don't know where to start honestly."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does."

"No," Peyton said to him. "It doesn't. It doesn't have to." She corrected then pulled in a breath. "I want my dad back." Her voice hitched.

"Sweet girl, I'm so sorry. I've been the biggest ass."

"Well knock it off." Her smile was watery. "Mom would have called you a butthead."

"She hated for me to curse." Larry admitted.

"But she was worse than you."

"Only if you made her mad. You got my eyes, Peyton, and you got my smile, but your heart and your personality, your passion. That's all your mama. It's all Anna, but slowly it's becoming your own.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been there for you the way that I should have been, the way that you needed me to be. I'm sorry that you had to go somewhere else."

"Daddy, Lucas-"

"We'll get to him." Larry cut in. "This is really hard for me. Your mom, she was it. My only. After looking so long, she found me and when I lost her a huge part of me went with her. I know that she's mad at me right now, disappointed at the way that things have been." He shook his head. "But I don't-"

"I need you, Dad." Peyton said to him. "I need my dad. I miss my father. But I can't make you come back. I can't make you stay. You have to want that, need that. No matter what it costs me."

-

"We need to talk."

"What do you want?"

"You know what I want. Since I can't have it, I want something else."

Lucas stared at Nathan for long seconds then he stepped out on the porch closing the front door softly behind him. He crossed his arms over his chest, goods bumps dotted the flesh of his bare arms, the little hairs stood up, but none of that was from the cold.

"Talk."

"What do you think that you know? What lies are you about to spread?"

"I don't have to lie about anything and you know that. It's why you're here."

"Why can't you just leave my family alone? Why can't you just stay gone? What is it with you?"

"Nothing would please me more than to be off your radar." Lucas told him. "You seem to think that his mess is all bout me when it's about Dan. He won't leave me be and I don't want any part of him and I don't want any part of you. What your mom does is her business-"

"Glad to hear you say it."

"Dan is going to find out if he doesn't know already."

"My dad is no longer any of your concern. You don't want any part of him remember.

"If you came here to agitate me-"

"I came her to make sure you don't start anymore fires for me and mine."

"Go home, Nathan." Lucas said to him, his eyes looking right though his brother. "And if you come back here again, I'm going to call the cops and let them deal wit you."

Nathan laughed. "The cops? Really?" Absently he touched a hand to the side of his mouth. "They couldn't detect their way out of a sandwich bag, but that works in your favor now doesn't it? I'm just wondering," Nathan went on as Lucas turned to go inside.

"Why didn't you ever suspect, Smith? Really? I mean he has reason and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to read the instructions they put on the side of the box."

Lucas didn't answer. His and flexed on the door knob. Nathan saw the movement and satisfaction filled him.

"Can you honestly say that you never thought about it? Not once? Do you really hate him that much?"

"I hate who he is and I want no part of him."

Lying in bed hours later, Lucas couldn't get to sleep.

_"Can you honestly say that you never thought about it?"_

Yes. Yes he could.

He didn't like it, but fact of the matter was that he was single minded; he had a one track mind when it came to Dan and Nathan. But then he'd seen what they could do, he knew what they did. Lucas still believed that Dan had burned down his house. He gut told him that his father was some how involved.

He had never had a problem with Tim Smith until recently. But it was more than obvious that Tim had a problem with him.

"_I'm just wondering what it is about you, Scott that makes have everybody talking…"_

"_Her mom is dead just the same as yours, the they don't talk about Peyton's tragedy nearly as much as they gossip about yours…"_

"_Tree Hill's sweetheart…finally took his bastard son after his mother was killed…"_

"_I don't need Nathan to have words with you. You're gossip and that's all you'll ever be…"_

Lucas sighed hard running a hand over his face. He sat up and the sheets around him fell to his waist.

They could innocent. Dan and Nathan could be-no.

"No"

Lucas tossed the blankets aside and sat on the side of the pull out bed. He washed his hand over his face then held his head in his hands. His gut told him that Dan had something to do with this that he was apart of it some how but…

Lucas stood. He wasn't going to sleep tonight. Too much was going on in his mind. Dan, Nathan, Tim and Keith, his mom. Peyton. The fact that TH bombed tonight against Pinkerton because Nathan and Tim couldn't get along just ate at him all the more, because he could be out there to helping his team, and Jake couldn't either.

He got dressed and left. It was just after one in the morning. Lucas had no idea where he was going he just needed out of the house so he could attempt to get away from his thoughts.

He pulled his hoodie over his head as he stepped off the porch an started walking. He started to walk home but he stopped himself. He'd promised Keith that he'd wait and they would do it together.

Lucas started walking again

"_Do you really hate him that much?"_

Hating that man took up too much energy. Getting away from him took so much more, but it was necessary. Life and death. His life and the death of the person he was fighting to be.

His breath puffed out in front of him in small clouds. He stared asking himself questions and making himself be truthful.

God coming of age sucked.

Did he hate his father? No.

Did he hate his brother? Yes.

Lucas stopped in his tracks.

Yes?

Yes. He started walking again. It was easy to be indifferent to his father when he never thought of the man that way in the fist pace. It was harder to be indifferent toward Nathan when the asshole was in his face all day very day doing whatever he had to, whenever he could to make life suck for him.

Yeah, Lucas hated Nathan. He hated his brother immensely, and that pissed him off. That's what Nathan had over him. And if the ass knew it he was being smart about keeping that fact to himself.

Did he think that Nathan burned him out? No.

Why?

Because Nathan was no Dan. He would pass that man one day, but he hadn't yet. He threw a ball at his face, antagonize himself into an ass beating and hit him from behind instead of coming at Lucas face to face.

Nathan didn't burn his house down, Lucas decided. He was too chickenshit to read the instructions on the ides of the box.

Did he believe that Dan did it? Yes.

Everything in Lucas said that Dan had a hand in this. Even with Tim's seemingly recent dislike of, and possibly hate of him. Lucas still believed that Dan set that fire. Why? Because Dan hated Keith a hell of a lot more and had hated his own brother for a whole lot longer than Tim had hated him.

When Lucas stopped walking he found himself in front of Peyton's place.


	20. Chapter 20

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Twenty

Her dad was home. Peyton's car was parked on the street and his was in the drive.

He should go home, Lucas though. But he couldn't make himself move to turn around. Last thing he wanted to do was disrespect Larry Sawyer, but…

Lucas cupped his hands to his mouth and blew his warm breath over them as he walked up the drive. He jumped into the bed of Larry Sawyer's truck, climbed over the hood and slid down the windshield to the trucks' hood. Bracing himself on the top of the garage, Lucas pulled himself up.

His arms were shaky and he had to rest for just a second. He was only taking his pain killers at half a dosage now and it still make him a little shaky.

He walked the eave to Peyton's room. The lights were out and he could just barely make out her sleeping from in her bed.

The window was unlocked and Lucas hoped that her father wasn't standing guard with a shotgun. He didn't want to know what a bullet felt like, but he'd come here for a reason. He was going back on his promise to himself not to give Peyton's father a reason, to force the man's hand, to make him open his eyes, but…

He pushed the window open silently and climbed inside closing it behind him. He could hear Peyton's deep, even breaths as she slept. He heard her moving and she turned in her sleep. When his eyes adjusted to the dark in the room Lucas could just barely make out Peyton asleep in the bed. She lay on her side with an arm thrown out to her side. He could see the blonde curls of her hair, the curve of her shoulder.

He crawled in bed beside her, Peyton's back was to him. She was under the blankets. He lay on top of them. Lucas wasn't going to let himself stay long. He laid down behind her, pillowing his head on his arm, pulling Peyton closer to him with his other arm. He pressed his nose into her hair breathing deep.

He was warm against him, and felt so good, so right in his arms. It was hard to be scared of what he was feeling and what he felt when his need to be with her right now was bigger than all of it. Lucas didn't understand any of it, but that didn't matter. Not right now.

Not right now.

Peyton turned in her sleep, her nose pressing into the warmth of his neck. Her breaths touched his throat. Lucas knew when she woke. Her body tensed then stretched. She pulled in a deep breath and pressed closer, her arm slid around his waist, then a split second later she pushed up on her elbow, looked down at him, and then sat up completely.

She blinked her eyes in the dark. She knew it was him before she knew it was him. She had been leaving her window unlocked hoping that Lucas's resolve would snap and he would come an see her.

Looked like she had gotten her wish.

She hoped that she had because she didn't want to be dreaming. She could feel him beside her, smell the outside air on him, feel the cold come off him and start to warm even on her own skin.

She reached over him to turn on the lamp and heard him breath deep. She she sat back on the bed, Peyton absently pulled the blankets that had covered her over her lap.

"Lucas-"

He couldn't help himself. Lucas liked Peyton all half awake with bed head. Kissing her was no problem. The small, pleased sound she made in her throat when he did made Lucas's blood heat and his heart beat faster.

Peyton touched her fingers to his face feeling the heat of his body over take the chill of the air outside that still clung to him. When she pulled away, she didn't open her eyes. Not juts yet. Lucas's eyes came open slowly and he watched as Peyton pressed her lips together, like she was making a memory. His eyes darkened to the color of midnight.

Her breath shuddered out of her as her eyes came open. "Better not have climbed on my car." She murmured.

Lucas smiled, the dimple winking out in his cheek. "You're parked on the street." He told her.

"I'm glad you came."

"So am I." He touched her face. "I still don't want to give your father a reason, but I needed to see you."

"Why?"

"Couldn't sleep." Lucas lifted what was supposed to be a negligent shoulder, but Peyton wasn't buying it. Not for a second.

"Started walking and ended up here."

She was silent for a second, then lay back down on her side, pushing an arm under her pillow. "Turn off the light," she told him.

Lucas watched Peyton for long moment then nodded. He turned off the light and lay down beside her. They didn't speak. She lay her head on his shoulder, he put a hand in her hair.

"I could be wrong," he spoke quietly. "I've been wrong about so much lately. What if I'm wrong about this?"

"About what?"

"Dan and the fire." He replied. "What if he didn't have anything to do with it at all? What if it-"

"What Tim?"

Lucas's chest rose and fell with a deep breath.

"Do you think that Tim started that fire?"

"No." He replied. "I don't know. My gut is telling me that Dan is in it up to his throat. Even with Tim's new hate for me, I still believe that Dan lit that match." Peyton stayed silent. He had to work this out. She was just glad that he wasn't beating the hell out of anyone to get the answers that he needed.

When Lucas had pulled Tim off of Nathan today, she hadn't been at all surprised. He hadn't done it for Nathan. He'd done it for Smith even though the asshole hadn't deserved it. She would have let the moron's beat the hell out of each other.

"Nathan believes that I hate Dan's guts and that's why I never considered anyone else but he and Dan. And he's right. About not considering anyone else. I hate it, but I have a one track mind when it comes to the two of them and it's all bad. I don't want to be wrong about-"

Peyton leaned her body halfway across his stopping Luca's words completely. "Stop." She told him. The word was barely audible. She lowered her mouth to his kissing Lucas softly. He tried to sit up, to kiss her back, but she touched a hand to his chest. His body relaxed back into the bed and he let her kiss him again.

"This your way of telling me to shut up?" His voice wrasped.

"Maybe I just wanted to kiss you."

"Then by all means."

He felt her smile.

Her kisses were soft, they were slow, and they were long. They erased whatever it was that Lucas had been thinking about. Whatever words he'd been about to say had vanished from his vocabulary.

She moved from over him still at his side, propped up by an arm. Lucas pushed himself up, following her just as quick. He pushed a hand into her hair burying it to the wrist in her curls, urging her mouth back to his, not that Peyton needed much coaxing.

He was lightheaded, eager, and burning up from the inside out. But he would stop, he told himself. He would stop and die right there where they lay if that was what she wanted. He didn't want to hurt Peyton or push her in anyway.

But damned if he didn't want her something serious.

They pulled away only because they needed air. Lucas's breaths were heavy and fast as Peyton kissed his lips one at a time, first the top one then the bottom one, catching them between her own for not even seconds of time. She nipped Lucas's chin. His head tilted back when she pressed a kiss to the fast beating pulse at this neck.

She reached for his sweater pulling it up from his wait. He helped her, tugging the hooded sweater by that back of it's collar and pulling the cloth over his head while he kicked off his shoes. Lucas caught her gaze with his then pulled his T-shirt over his head.

Peyton though about turning on the light to get a better look at what was being bared to her, but she didn't. Seeing him with her hands would be to much better. He would drink him in with her eyes later.

She touched him first with one hand trailing her fingers over his collar throat, behind his ear, she traced its shell. He shivered and she traced her hand back down again.

Lucas felt like his head was about to pop off his neck. He was about to embarrass himself if he didn't at least attempt to calm down a little before he let Peyton drive him nuts again.

"Gonna draw me?" He tried to joke.

"Later," she replied. "Shut up."

"Yes ma'am."

A rough gasp left Lucas when she kissed his chest. Calming down was no longer an option. His control had snapped and he only hoped that she didn't push him away from her now.

She wasn't scared or put off when Lucas took over, holding her face in his hands while he kissed her senseless. Her hands gripped his forearms, her nails scraping lightly. She leaned him to him completely, boneless, when he nipped her lip.

In the next instant, Peyton felt her bed at her back and the heat of Lucas's body as her front as he lay a top her. Her fingers dug into the muscle of his back when Lucas kissed at the sensitive skin of her neck.

Peyton couldn't catch a decent breath if she tired, but she wasn't about to stop anything. Their forehead rested together. Lucas watched Peyton's eyes as his and played at the hem of her tank. She helped him pull the shirt off her body.

She was beautiful. There were no other words for it. The skin of her shoulders, neck and stomach was so soft under his fingertips. Lucas was immensely appreciative of the bra that she wore. He didn't know what color it was, and he didn't care. All that mattered to him was that it was sexy as hell and it clasped in the front.

"Holy shit…"

"Don't you dare be noble."

He shook his head. "No ma'am…"

She unclasped the bra herself, sliding it from hr body and tossing it aside. His eye didn't fall out of his head but Lucas had to work hard to swallow and not gawk like an idiot. S he surprised him again as she was the one with her bed at his back with Peyton's soft, warm skin at his front; breast to chest.

"I'm glad we waited."

She nodded. "I am, too. We weren't ready that day. But then, you knew that didn't you, Luke?" He nodded and she kissed his chin. When she felt his hands in her hair, she kissed his mouth.

"We're ready now." He said to her.

"We've waited long enough."

-

If her dad cam in right now and threw him out the window Lucas would have gladly let him.

He had just made love to Peyton Sawyer and he wanted to do it again.

As soon as possible.

Repeatedly.

She was so quiet, but he knew that she wasn't asleep. Her back was to his front, he hand an arm over her waist. She held his hand in hers trailing her fingers slowly over his knuckles.

Shit, he thought. He hoped he wasn't messing protocol by opening his mouth, but…

"Peyton,"

When she looked at him over her shoulder, Lucas felt like he had been kicked in the gut. Tears shown in those green-gold eyes.

Hell...

"Peyton, God," he gathered him to her. She went willingly. "Baby-"

"Don't."

"You're crying."

She shook her head. "Not because you hurt me."

"Huh?"

She laughed a little. "You're such a guy." She teased as she kissed him. One kiss turned into to, and two turned into three. "Not that I'm complaining mind you." She spoke against his lips.

"So I didn't…You're not…"

"It was worth waiting for." She said softly. "This is going to make me sound like such a girl, but, when they tell you that it should be with someone you care about, they were right. Makes a huge difference."

He was going to be so busted, but Lucas didn't care. He felt himself start to grin and it only got wider when she laughed at shoved at his chest.

"This isn't a line, but you have the softest skin."

"You don't need them, remember?" Peyton said to him. "But thank you just the same. So…are you going to let me draw you?"

"Like this?"

"Yeah."

"Do I have much choice?"

"No," Peyton smiled pressed a kiss to his chest. "But I figured that I'd at least ask, you know, to make it look good."

"Are you tired?"

"No," she lied. She would fight the sleep if she had to. "Don't go just yet."

"I won't. I'm not." He wasn't going anywhere unless he absolutely had to. Her body was half at top him. He trailed the fingers of one hand down her spine to where the blankets covered them from the waist down. He would stay until she fell asleep. He couldn't chance her dad catching them like this. If Larry Sawyer caught him in bed with his daughter, Lucas knew that he would never make it to graduation.

Peyton's body went boneless with sleep, but even then Lucas couldn't make himself let her go. He held her a little while longer. He closed his eyes and held her until he couldn't stay any longer. He knew that he slept because it felt like he had only blinked and when he opened his eyes, the sky had gotten lighter.

He couldn't take his eyes off her sleeping form as he dressed. It was like he was seeing her all over again with new eyes. He pulled his sweater over his head, leaving his T-shirt off completely. Peyton laid asleep on her back now, the blankets pulled to cover her sleeping body.

He sat at the side of the bed watching her sleep telling himself that he had to go before he was murdered. Lucas touched her hair, her face then finally brushed his lips over hers.

"Mmph…" Peyton's kissing him back was an unconscious thing as she was still asleep, or so he'd thought.

"Love you, Lucas."

"Love you, too, Peyton."

"What time is it?"

"Who cares?"

She smiled. Peyton stretched then pushed up to sitting holding the blankets to her chest as she looked at the bedside clock. "My dad will be up soon."

Lucas nodded. "I'd rather climb out the window than be thrown out it."

They kissed for long minutes. She tunneled the fingers of one hand through the hair at the back of his neck.

"Okay," she said breathlessly. "Go."

Lucas nodded, stole a quick kiss then headed for the window.

"Your shirt."

"Put it on."

She did. Getting out of bed, Peyton grabbed the smaller blanket from the foot of her bed wrapping it like a sarong around her waist. It covered her where the shirt didn't reach.

She walked him to the window watching as he climbed out. She was about to close it behind him on the cold, but Lucas stopped her when he stuck his head back inside. When he kissed her a soft purring sound of contentment sounded in Peyton's throat.

"I'll be seeing you." He spoke against her lips and felt her smile against his.

"Count on it."


	21. Chapter 21

At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Chapter Twenty-One

Rising his fist, he knocked.

Nearly shivering, he blew on his hands. His breath fogged out in front of him. He shoved his fists into the pockets of his bomber jacket as snow fell down around him.

Amazing.

It had come out of nowhere, like a lot of things in his life these days. Little by little, white flurries fell from the sky and stuck to the ground covering the side walks and grass around him. Lucas remembered the last time Tree Hill had a snow day. It came on a Saturday. There hadn't been any school so it probably didn't count.

When the door came open his hands came out of his pockets and stepped forward halfway inside the house. Lucas wasn't cold anymore. He was far from it. When he kissed her, felt her lips so soft, so warm against his, heat rushed through him to nearly scalding.

It was amazing to him that he wanted Peyton even more than before. It had killed him to leave her that next morning. He could have called her on the phone and he did. Call him greedy, but Lucas had needed to see her again. To feel her even if it was just a kiss. Only a kiss to get him through the day.

"Hi."

"Hey."

He heard her laugh. Whether it was at him or at them, he didn't know. Lucas didn't care. The only thing that Lucas could concentrate on was the way that she felt against him. She was thinking about it too. The cold should have gotten to her. She was wearing sweats and a faded jersey that used to be her mom's.

"I gotta say, Lucas Scott," Peyton teased tipping her head back to look at him. "You spoil me. Didn't you just call me on the phone and now you're on my doorstep with me looking like this."

"You look great, and I'm greedy." He said. "That phone call was nowhere near enough. Nowhere near."

That fact that what he said wasn't a line made Lucas's words twenty times better. She was trying not to babble, she did not babble, dammit, or make a fool out of herself, but he was making it hard looking at her the way that he was.

"How are you?"

She pulled in a breath. "Better." She held the door open. "You want to come in?"

He wanted to. Badly. "Can't." Lucas replied. "Keith, he's getting out of the hospital today. I should be there right now, but I couldn't stay away." He looked down at his hands. "He wants to go to the house. We're going to the house. What's left of it."

"Luke-"

"I just—needed to see you first."

They were both silent after that. It was the truth. Lucas wished that he would have kept his mouth shut, kept the words inside. This was bigger than "I love you" not that those words weren't important, they were. But this was "I need you." When you put those two together…Was she ready for that? He was. He'd said the words.

"Peyton-"

They both started at the sound of her father's voice. Peyton watched as Lucas went blank. The shields went up. She hated when he did that, but she understood.

"Lucas."

"Mr. Sawyer." He looked at Peyton as if to tell her that he would see her later, but he stopped, turning back to her father. "Do you have a minute?"

"We've already said all the we need to say to each other, young man." Larry told him. He didn't want to fight with this kid. He just wanted him to stay away from his girl.

"Dad-"

"Peyton-"

"I've got something that I need speak to you about, sir." Lucas cut in. "I have plenty to say to you, Mr. Sawyer. The first thing being that I apologize. I never should have spoken to you the way that I did that night."

"No," the man agreed. "You shouldn't have."

"But I wasn't wrong." Lucas went on. "I could have gone about things differently. That was my mistake and I apologize for it. Your daughter is special."

Larry nodded. "She is." He agreed.

He was still speaking to her father, but Lucas was looking at Peyton. "I would never hurt her. I would cut my own arm off first. I love her." He looked back at her father. "Young or not, that's the way that I feel, that we feel. You don't get to say that that means for us. Dan is my father, and as much as I would love to change that, I can't. But I'm not him. Like I told you before, you've got the wrong brother; you've got the wrong son."

When he kissed her for the last time, right in front of her father, it was short and it was sweet. He didn't look back as he stepped off the Sawyer porch.

-

Peyton closed the door just as Lucas's car pulled away from the curb. She folded her arms across her chest, suddenly cold. When her father left the room she followed right behind him.

"Why can't you give him the benefit of the doubt?"

"I told you before, that boy is trouble."

"You don't even know him," Peyton nearly raged. "You don't care to. You look at something and automatically you think that what you see it what you get. That isn't fair, dad. You have no idea how hard Lucas is trying, how hard he is fighting not to be like Nathan or his dad. How badly he needs to be away from that man."

"That isn't a guarantee that is he isn't or that he won't be. I won't gamble with your future, your life, on a maybe. I won't do it Peyton Elizabeth. Don't waste your breath asking it of me."

"Yeah, dad, that's it. Lucas and I are going to elope to Vegas where he will promptly knock me up on our wedding night. He'll break my heart and I'll come back home to you and Tree Hill barefoot and pregnant for you to take care of."

"Jeeze you got a mouth."

"God. If you won't trust him, could you at least trust me?"

"Trust is earned, kid and you're loosing ground by leaps and bounds. That boy was here last night. His damn shoe prints are on my car. I told you that I did not want Lucas Scott climbing through your window.

"How about you give me the benefit of the doubt? Try and see where I'm coming from, Peyton. You're sixteen, and whether you like it or not, Lucas Scott has too many strikes against him."

"Then I guess we're at a stalemate because you refuse to see what I see, and I refuse to stop seeing him. You don't trust him and I do. You don't trust me, obviously, but I trust myself."

"God you are your mother's daughter. Contrary, bull-headed, and stubborn as hell."

"That's the nicest thing you ever said to me."

Larry pointed a finger at her, working hard to keep the smile off his face. "Peyton, now dammit, I'm trying to be serious."

She sobered. "I know that you are. So am I. I'm not stupid, Dad. I'm not naïve. Just because I'm sixteen doesn't make me a child. I've been through too much."

"Doesn't make you and adult either. You don't know everything. You got so much more life to live and even then you still won't know the half of it."

"Lucas came to you and apologized like a man. That should at least count for something. Stop being such a butthead, Dad. You can admit to that fact without crossing over to the darkside and actually liking your daughter's boyfriend."

"Man," he groaned. "Do we really have to call him that?"

"It's who he is."

"Look, I understand what you're saying to me, girlie, I do, but it's not enough. Lucas Scott hadn't proven to me anything-"

"You can't use his last name against him forever."

"You telling me that this is forever, little Ms. Sixteen?"

"It's right now and that's more than enough for me. Lucas isn't going to make it his life's mission to prove to him that he isn't who you think that he is. The only reason that you matter to Luke is because you matter to me. He didn't have to do what he did. He's calling a truce. Maybe you could stop breathing fire and call one too."

"You say that you love this boy. I won't tell you any different. Lucas hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt from me. I just do not trust him. Telling you to stop seeing him does me no good. Just—be careful."

"I am."

That was as good as it was going to get she knew. Peyton watched he father as he stared out of the kitchen. Larry stopped just inside the kitchen's entrance.

"That boy hurts you and your mom's shovel is still out back with Lucas's name all over it."

"I love you, too, Dad."

"You'd better."

-

Nathan watched his mom stare out into nothing. The way he felt about her varied. He never felt two ways about someone before. The little boy inside him loved her because she was mom.

But she wasn't.

Yeah, they had the same blonde hair, brown eyes and smile. They were the same size and height. They dressed the same, sounded just alike, but this other person with his mom's face was completely different from the person that Nathan thought that she was.

When had she changed? He wondered not for the first time.

How long? How long had she been screwing around on his dad? Before he had brought Lucas home or after? When did she stop seeing him as her husband? When did she stop caring about them as her family? At all period?

Nathan believed that Lucas was the reason that his family was falling apart at the seams, but he didn't tell his mom to do what she did; what she was doing. He wished that Lucas had that kind of power so he wouldn't blame her; hate her.

He wasn't looking at his mom with little kid eyes anymore.

"Nathan?"

He blinked hard startling himself out of his silent musings. Uncrossing his arms, he pushed away from the doorway stepping into the den. He sat on the arm of one of the couches ignoring his mother's pointed look.

His dad wasn't home and for that Nathan was glad. He hadn't wanted him to be anyway. Not when he was about to tell his mother to make a decision, her family or her affair.

"What's wrong?" She asked him.

He laughed.

"A lot." Nathan told her. "Too much actually. And while I would love to be able to blame it all on Dad's bastard-"

"Alright," she snapped. "That is enough, Nathan Scott. Lucas is your brother."

"He's a mistake that this family has had to pay for, for too long. We've paid enough."

She shook her head. "I'll never understand why you hate him so much."

"My life went to hell when I was sex years old. Or maybe it happened a whole hell of a lot sooner than that and I just didn't know it. Well I know it now."

"You know what?"

He stared at his mother for long seconds.

"How long have you been tramping around on dad?"

The sound of Deb's hand slapping her son's face echoed throughout the den. His cheek stung and was probably red. His ears rang, not from the blow but from all the anger that churned inside him, that wrapped around him like a damned blanket.

Her dark eyes were wide as she stared out her little boy; her son. The way that he looked at her now made her sick to her stomach. Just like his father, she thought. That smirking smile with eyes that showed nothing but fury.

"I'm waiting for you to deny it." Nathan said to her. When she said nothing, he shook his head in disgust.

"First time I saw the two of your together, I thought it was just two friends hanging out. I mean, it's not like you hadn't before. Then I saw you holding hands. Never in a million years, Mom." He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck laughing at himself.

"So I followed you and got the answers I was looking for. Maybe I should be a cop." He laughed sarcastically again. "God knows they need someone who knows how to do the job."

"Nathan-"

"You going to deny it now?" He asked her. "Unless you're about to tell me that you aren't going to see that person again, that what's between the two of your is done, that you aren't going to finish that job that Lucas started on our family, then save it. I don't want to hear it because I don't care.

"You make me sick," he went on. "I know. I know, Dad's a bastard, but not even he deserved to be hurt like this. Do you even love him anymore."

"No." She said quietly.

"Then why stay? Because of me?" When she nodded he scoffed shaking his head. "Don't stay on my account. I don't want you to.

"I'm not going to tell him about it either way. You may not love him enough to respect your wedding vows, but I care about him enough not to hurt him the way that you are. Kind of ironic that it's that part of you in me that's keeping me from blowing his world to pieces."

He started to leave but at the last second Nathan turned around.

"You know," he spoke almost softly. "I thought that dad would have been the one to do this to you. I guess that makes him and I the same doesn't it? I didn't believe in him anymore than he believes in me."

-

Keith groaned low and deep in his chest as a very real, very intense pain washed through him.

He and Lucas stood in front of what was left of the home they had loved Karen in. It was still a crime scene seeing as they still had no idea who had stared the fire. Yellow crime scene tape surrounded the house's charred remains. One wall was completely missing. The roof was gone. Windows were smashed and garbage littered the ground showing that the crime scene tape had been ignored by many someones.

Lucas's throat worked as he swallowed. His eyes were hard and glacier blue. He lied and told himself that he didn't care who did it anymore. He only wanted to fix what was broken. It was like the house had a dark cloud hanging over it and Lucas wanted it gone.

"Lucas. Luke, wait a minute."

He ignored his uncle and tore through the tape stepping on to the land that was his. His mother's legacy to him. Keith watched as Lucas stepped up on to the porch and into what was left of the house then he followed.

The couches were skeletons of what the used to be, the walls were either scorched or gone completely, some rooms were gutted. He could see inside his mother's room from where he stood in what was left of the living room. Lucas turned away and found himself looking to where the roof had fallen in on Keith. A sick ball sunk into the pit of his stomach.

He could have died. Lucas knew all of that, but being inside the place where it had happened made things all the more real. As if things weren't real enough for him already. He felt Keith standing behind him. A warm heavy hand rested on his shoulder.

"We can fix it." He said to him. Lucas nodded. "We will fix it."

"We should get out of here. They just cut you loose. Don't need you going back there because you breathed in this stuff." Keith silently agreed following Lucas out.

They stopped on the porch.

Jimmy, MJ, Haley, Jake and Peyton all waited for them on the sidewalk. Haley leaned into her mom; she had tears in her eyes as she stared at what was left of the place in utter disbelief. M.J.'s face was stark with shock. Jimmy held the both of them.

Anger laced Jake's features. He rubbed one hand with the other as he took in what was left of the place.

Peyton looked at him.

Lucas sent her a small smile. She sent him one back. He made sure that Keith was behind him before he started toward them all.

Peyton met him first. She put her hand in his as if it was the most natural thing to do. Lucas pressed a kiss into her hair. It wasn't enough. She tilted her head back and kissed his lips. His arm went around her shoulder, hers went around his waist, she laid her head on his chest.

"Can't wait to see you in a tool belt." Lucas tired to joke. Everything inside him hurt to be there. They could fix it, he kept telling himself over and over, but that only helped so much when it never should have happened in the first place.

She stopped them on the walk then faced him. There was nothing that she could do, nothing that she could say to take the hurt and obvious anger off Lucas's face. Wrapping her arms around him was all that she could do and Lucas was grateful. It was more than what he needed.

He and Jake shook hands, bumped shoulders.

"I want to help." He told both Lucas and his uncle. "When the dust settles, you'll have an extra set of hands in me. My dad, too."

Keith clapped him on the shoulder. "You're a good man, Jacob. Any and all help would be very much appreciated."

Dan watched from across the street as his son pulled the James girl into a hug. She looked like she was crying. Lucas something to her and Dan heard her laugh watched as she elbowed Luke in the stomach.

His hands clenched on the steering wheel at his son's smile. Lucas was happy. The only time he saw that boy smile when he was with them was when he thought that they weren't around. When he thought that no one could see him.

He had smiled at Deb, but even then those smiles had been few and far between.

Dan wouldn't let himself be hurt. It was so much easier to embrace his anger instead.

When Lucas looked up and spotted him, all traces of feeling slowly drained form his face until Dan could feel his son staring right through him. When Lucas looked away, turning his back, Dan felt hallowed out, stabbed deep.


	22. Chapter 22

An At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Hey man, are you about to lose it just as much as I am?"

Lucas closed his locker hefting his bag over his shoulder.

"I mean, it's like the whole damn roster has lost their mind." Jake went on. "Smith keeps getting his stupid self ejected. That's not what Whitey brought him up for. And Nathan, don't get me started on that guy. Forget the playoffs. We'll be lucky to finish with a winning season at this rate."

"I haven't been cleared yet either, Jake." Lucas told him as they walked down the hallway.

"Doctors are talking about the end of the season, but I need to be in there now. I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines watching it all go to shit."

"They aren't even giving me this season." Lucas told him. "I just barely started PT. It sucks, but if I don't do it, I don't play.

"No pain, no victory." Jake put in.

"Yeah. Next season, Jagielski…Championship."

He grinned. "No doubt. And I won't be pulled up from JV either. Varsity all the way. I've more than proved what I can do. That's what pisses me off about Smith. He's taking his shot and tanking it, bringing the rest of us down with him."

He was.

Lucas went to the games. He watched. It was like any little thing set Tim off. It was almost as if the guy was getting himself benched on purpose. He'd gotten his wish. Whitey had had enough of his crap and Tim was riding the bench. Nathan really was carrying the team now and loving every bit of it. But they were still losing games.

Lucas was thinking on that when Peyton came around the corner with Brooke Davis at her side. She hadn't seen him yet and Lucas took advantage. He drank in the sight. She really should wear skirts all the time. His fingertips itched to touch her. When she laughed, heat splintered down his spine.

They hadn't been able to spend much time together since that morning. He and Keith were doing what needed to be done so that they could rebuild. That was added to the PT he wasn't even a quarter of the way through. Through all of that, he and Peyton had only managed to see each other during school. It was torture. Lunch only lasted so long.

"She's dangerous."

"Jagielski, ask the girl out."

"Why when I can get her to ask me?"

Lucas stopped in the middle of the hall. Jake looked back at him. "What?"

"That's a chick move."

"With Brooke Davis?" Jake raised curious brows. "Dude, that's survival. That girl lives so make guy's pant." He lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "If my tongue is going to hand out of my head, hers is too. Chick move…" Jake shook his head. "Forget what I said. It's not survival. It's not chick move. It's man style." When Lucas laughed, Jake smirked.

"All's fair in love and war, Luke-man."

"And her asking you out?"

Jake's grin was wolfish. "Icing on the cake."

"Could blow up in your face."

"Doubt it."

Lucas started down the hall again. Having seen him, Peyton started his way too. When she smiled at him, he physically aced in the pit of his stomach, his need to be near her, to touch her, very real. She as still too far away to hear him and Lucas was too impatient to wait. As he pulled his phone from his pocket, he got slammed in the shoulder.

Like a pinched nerve aggravated, pain screamed down one whole side of Lucas's body. He must have made a sound. Through the alarms going off in his head, distantly he heard Jake call after him, then Peyton.

"Lucas!" It was like he had water in his ears.

"Dammit, Smith!"

Lucas felt like he was going to black out. It was like being burned all over again. He didn't understand it. His ears rang and he swallowed back the bile that threatened to choke him. Half way to his knees, as back as the pain was, as startling, Lucas pushed his way to his feet.

The anger that he felt played tag and raced with the pain in his body. Together they fueled him. He heard Jake and knew who slammed into him. Now Lucas wanted to know why and what the problem was.

Tim was walking away like he hadn't done a thing. He glanced over his shoulder to see Lucas stalking after him the turned around.

He waited.

He looked at Lucas coming at him and dared him to do something.

"Lucas!"

He ignored Jake shouting behind him. His aim had been to talk this thing out, but as he got closer, saw the look Smith's eyes that dared him, he brushed it off.

"Fuck it."

"Lucas!"

"Luke!"

He grabbed Tim by the collar and threw him into a door that was half open. Startled, Haley shot up from the table where she sat alone.

"Luke?"

She watched as Tim scrambled to his feet and slammed a fist into Lucas's shoulder. It was like Lucas hadn't felt it, but she did.

"Hey!" Haley started around the table, fists balled ready to take Tim Smith's head off his neck, but she, but she didn't get the chance. Lucas pushed himself away from the wall. She could see it in his eyes. He had. He had felt it, but he was ignoring it. The pain that she had seen in his eyes was taken over by something bigger than rage. His eyes went from glassy to glacier blue. When Lucas threw himself at Tim, Haley was scared to death. She was scared for Smith believe it or not. She had seen Lucas upset, she had seen him pissed, she had seen him enraged to the point of not giving a damn what happened to him or the person in his sights. She was afraid because she wouldn't be able to pull Lucas off.

She shouted for him when he and Tim flew over the table. Her head snapped up when Jake pushed through the door of the tutor center with Peyton Sawyer and Brooke Davis close behind him. A crowd had formed and Haley expected someone in an official capacity to break things up any second.

"Lucas!" Jake passed her jumping a chair. Tim and Lucas were trading shots, shoving each other and swearing. Tim knocked Lucas into a shelf, but that didn't stop him. He pushed right off and kept on coming. He was tired of being pushed; he was tired of the behind his back attacks. He was swinging back.

"Lucas stop." Jake tried to hold him back and in the end he had to wrap his arms around him. Lucas felt like he was trapped between two steel beams. It was difficult for him to pull in a decent breath. "Stop." He heard Jake say again. But even with all that, Lucas tried to get around him. He was too keyed up to listen to what his friend was saying to him.

"Dammit, Lucas."

"Luke, stop, stop it."

There were hands on his face coercing him to stay still. It worked. He was breathing hard, but he didn't move.

"Look at me."

He did and started to come down slowly. He put his hands on Peyton's shoulders, pulling in slow deep breaths; he rested his head against hers as his eyes slid closed. She was speaking to him, but he wasn't listening to the words. He concentrated on the sound of her voice.

"I'm okay, Peyton." He told her. "Let go."

"No."

"Peyton."

"Shut up."

Nathan had pushed his way through the vultures. Taking in all the players he decided that now would be the time. Nothing was going to stop him from getting the truth out. Questions would be answered. It ended now.

He saw Principle Turner coming down the hall. Not today, he thought to himself. Nathan grabbed a set of keys from the counter. Closing the door, he broke off a key into the lock then he surveyed the situation. Jake had Tim pined while Peyton fussed with Lucas. Brooke Davis and some girl looked on. No one knew that he was in the room. And that was the way that he wanted it.

For now.

-

"You have to calm down or you're going to hurt yourself even more." She knew that Lucas' shoulder was killing him. She seen him nearly fall to his knees and fight his way back to standing with fire in his eyes.

"Just stop. Stop. Please."

"What the hell is your problem, Smith?" Lucas spoke over her quiet pleas. He tired to move around her, but Peyton wasn't budging, doing her best to hold him back. It wasn't enough. Lucas got around her only to walk into Jake who made sure he stood in between Tim and the heated anger that was Lucas.

"I want to know what your problem is with me."

"Might as well tell him, Smith."

Heads turned at the sound of Nathan's voice. "Either way it comes out today. It stops here. No one is going anywhere until it's done and I get some answers." He pulled out a chair straddling it backward. He and Tim stared each other down. Refusing to pull his gaze away, he spoke.

"Every time I turn around there you are in my face and I'm sick of it." He looked at Lucas now. "I'm sick of you and your damned family making things hard for me and mine."

"Me and mine?" Jake shoved Lucas back when he went for Tim. "Me and mine? It' because of your dad that my mom is dead."

"That was an accident!"

"It was murder!"

The room went silent. Lucas' chest heaved with his heavy breaths. "My mom should still be here! She was coming home. She was coming home to me and Keith. Your father took her away from us."

"My dad is just as dead!"

"_It should have been him that night!"_ Lucas shouted back. "He drank and he drank until he could barely stand, until he couldn't see straight, then he got behind the wheel. No big deal right? He'd done it before. Many times. He played Russian roulette with his own life and won. Well his luck ran out and that night a six year old's life was blown apart because of it. An innocent woman, a good woman, was taken away before her time, and the man who loved her lost his soul, his reason for breathing. Your father did that. So don't you dare," Lucas ground out. "Don't you dare call what he did an accident."

"He's dead now," Tim said. "You should be happy. An eye for an eye. Your mother's death has been avenged. It's because of you that I'll never see my father again. You win."

"Lucas didn't put your father in prison." Haley spoke.

"He didn't kill him either," Jake added.

"He tied that sheet around his own neck." Nathan put in.

"He never got to come home because of that 'six year old boy'." Tim mocked. "Never mind that he had a family, a six year old son of his own that needed him just as much. That didn't mean dick. Your uncle, a drunk in his own right, made sure that everyone knew about poor Lucas struggling without his mother, taken way from the uncle who loved him and forced to live with his bastard father, Tree Hill's king in a house on the hill. Not to mention toughing it out making sand castles outside their beach house in the summers.

"You don't know what they did to him in there."

"And I don't care."

"You don't know either, Smith." Jake said to him. "You can't blame Lucas or anyone else for your dad being where he was then taking his own life. His choices got him there and he chose to go out the way that he did. You want to blame someone, you blame him. No one else."

"We lost everything!" Tim nearly screamed. "Our livelihood, our way of life, our home! None of that would have happened if he had been with us. He made a mistake. It wasn't like he went out there angling to kill anyone. He should have been able to come home."

"He should have spent every day he was sentenced to behind bars and then some." Lucas' voice rang cold. "He shouldn't have been able to live free like he hadn't ruined so many lives the way that he did. He threw away every chance to make it right when he made it home hammered to hell only to go out and do it again. He didn't care."

"You didn't know my dad."

Tim's words shattered inside Lucas's mind.

_"And eye for an eye…Your mother's death has been avenged."_

"Did you burn down my house?"

-

Nathan folded his arms over the back of the chair he sat in. He couldn't read the guy, but he knew. He just knew.

"Why should you have gotten to keep your home when I lost mine? Why should you have gotten to keep the memories made and kept in that place like a goddamn shrine when some other family is living in my house making new memories erasing the ones that we made there?"

Lucas couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was sick. Someone was not clicking right inside Tim's mind. Jake clenched and unclenched his still wrapped fists.

"People could have died." He said.

"No one told Keith Scott to turn into a burning building." Tim lifted a negligent shoulder. "No one told Lucas to run in like a hero after him either."

Nathan laughed, this was rich.

"You sick shit." He was serious. "So what, you were just going to let the keystone cops trip over their own damn feet to come down one me and my dad while you laughed your silly ass off from the shadows?"

"Nathan Scott being self-righteous. Now that is a laugh. You and your dad walk around like you can't be touched. You think that you can do whatever you want…"

He had heard the spiel so many times he knew it verbatim. Same song new nobody. He tuned him out.

"You and Smith have something in common, Luke. Tell me, what's the difference between him taking out all his mad about his dad on you and you taking all your mad at your mom on us?"

"I'm not made at my mother. If she could be here, if she had the choice, she would be. You don't matter and my anger at Dan is justified. You know it."

"How does it feel," Nathan taunted. "How does it feel to have your 'evil' bubble burst? You wanted so bad for it to be one of us when all along it was that clown crying in the corner."

"He was there."

Nathan's eyes cut back to Tim, the hatred he felt for him at that moment apparent in his midnight blue gaze.

"Dan was there," Tim said again. "He watched while Keith ran into that house. When the roof fell in he still watched. He didn't move on finger to help his own brother. Instead he spat on the ground said 'You started it, I finished it' and left. Your father left his own brother to die. He isn't just evil-"

"He's poison."

Nathan turned his gaze on Lucas' friend. "You want something do with your mouth?" He said to Haley. "Step on up."

Lucas clenched up. Knowing his friend Jake put a hand on Lucas' chest. Luke knocked it away. Jake put it back.

"Please," Haley snorted. "Touching you would be like touching every nasty bitch that slinks down these hallways. Hoped you were smart, Sawyer."

"Rocket scientist."

Haley gave Nathan a cool up and down look. "I don't believe that hype and you don't want to be embarrassed."

"Got nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Sure about that?" Haley's brow rose. "You've been a rage case since naptime. Can't just be about Lucas or the piece of fuzz on your lip that won't reach puberty until you graduate college."

"That's something else you and your mom have in common, Nate." Tim chimed in. "Neither one of you can resist the lure of boobs and blondes."

Nathan shot out of his seat running over the chair that had been under him. He threw Tim against the wall behind him getting a few shots in before he was shoved away his lip bleeding and his eye swelling. When Jake stepped between them, a reluctant peacemaker, Nathan whirled on Lucas.

"You just won't stop will you?" He said. "You won't stop until you bury us all!"

"I didn't tell Tim about your mom."

"Bullshit!"

"You hurt my mom," Tim spoke from behind Jake. "I hurt yours."

"I'm going to break every bone in your body."

"Not today." Jake spoke even though he was tempted to let Nathan just have at it.

"This is none of your damn business, Jagielski."

"You could try me, Nathan, but I wouldn't recommend it."

"And Lucas is your friend?" Nathan laughed humorlessly.

"He's keeping your from a charge, moron." Haley quipped.

-

Lucas slowly lowered himself to the floor. He made sure that he was far enough away from Tim so his hands wouldn't do what his emotions wanted him to. Peyton sat down next to him, but not even the warmth that came from her could penetrate that old that filled him. That calm that usually came over him when she was near wasn't enough. It couldn't compete with the stark anger and fresh grief he was feeling. It was something that couldn't be stopped. It had to burn its way out.

Lucas stared to stand. He felt light headed. It showed when he nearly fell into the wall behind him.

He was shutting her out. Peyton felt it just the same as she would feel a door slamming in her face.

"Lucas,"

He shook his head and physically pulled away. He needed to get out of here before he exploded. He had to get out of the room before he snapped and dismantled Tim Smith piece by piece.

The door being taking off its hinges got everyone's attention. Turner stepped in surveying the situation. The door was gone. Lucas saw his out and he was taking it.

"Luke." He ignored Haley. Two policemen had come in seconds behind the man in charge.

"Who snapped the key off in the lock?" Turner wanted to know. He turned to Lucas for answers. "Scott?" She stopped Lucas grabbing him by the arm.

"Tim Smith burned down my house. He's in the corner trying to catch his breath." Turner let him go and Lucas started out of the room. He expected the boys in blue to stop him, but they didn't.

"Lucas."

He kept going. Waking through the double doors and out into the cold.


	23. Chapter 23

An At The End of the Tunnel

An OTH FanFic

By AlexB

Chapter 23

It wasn't a crime scene anymore. The tape was gone and in a matter of days, what was left would be completely destroyed, leveled so that they could build anew.

It was amazing how something so small grew into something so big, so dangerous, and so deadly.

One drink.

One drink that turned into many. Many that turned into a disease. A disease that caused the death of his mother, took away Tim's father and his sanity. Sanity that could have easily stole the lives of three people, himself included.

One drink.

That was all that it took.

Since the reveal Lucas hadn't stepped in Tree Hill high. He didn't need people staring at him. They still whispered behind their hands about how he came to be, Keith and Dan's feud, and now this. He didn't need it. He didn't want it. They talked about Nathan's mom now too. Lucas didn't feel like going rounds with his brother over that one.

But he couldn't stay gone. He would go back. Just not today.

The air was so cold around him it hurt to breathe through his nose. As he walked up the short walk that used to be so long when he as younger, Lucas was assaulted with memories. It was almost like watching a movie.

He used to run for the front door when he heard that familiar sound of his uncles's car come up the block. He would launch himself right off the porch and into Keith's arms. He could hear that man's rough laugh in his ears.

Lucas walked around the porch remembering his uncle teaching him to rid a two wheeler around it before he attempted to take on the sidewalk then the street. He remembered Keith teaching him how to oil his bike chain afterward.

"_You take care of what you have, Skywalker, and it'll take care of you."_

Lucas gripped the porch rail in his hands squeezing his eyes shut tight. He wanted the memories to stop. He didn't want to remember anymore, and dammit, it wasn't fair.

None of it was.

Unconsciously he ran his hand over his head and found himself looking into the backyard. He could see his mom out there up to her elbows in dirt, that dumb hat on her head protecting her from the sun's rays. And he was right there next to her telling stupid jokes that only a little kid could get away with.

She'd laughed at them anyway.

Lucas turned away, making himself go inside. He stopped cold. He saw his mom in the kitchen. He knew that it wasn't real, but she was there. He could smell the food cooking in the oven. He could see himself, that six year old kid, sitting on the counter.

"_Shit."_

Lucas remembered that day. First time he ever heard his mother swear.

It had been a riot.

She had burned he fingers on the oven. Keith had just been coming in the door. He hadn't heard the car come up the street. He's been too engrossed in his mom's slip. He didn't want to miss her slip again. He knew what swears were. Being a kid, he had no idea why they were swears, but they were funny to listen to.

That had been the first day that thought had come into his mind. The first time thought about Keith as his dad.

He remembered him coming into the kitchen while his mom ran her hand under cold water in the sink. He had lifted him off the counted the way that he always did then went to take care of his mom. Keith had looked at his mom's hand then kissed her fingers the same way his mom had kissed fingers when Lucas had closed them in the front door.

"Kissing in the kitchen," Lucas murmured to himself. He'd watched them from the living room as Keith kissed his mom's forehead, both her cheeks, then her mouth, not finding the fact that Keith had kissed his mom on the lips weird at all. Not that he would have done it. Gross. It was what mom's and dads did.

Thinking about it now, it was more. It was need. It was like Keith had needed to kiss her or he would fall apart.

Lucas understood that now completely.

Then it was gone and now he was looking at himself and Keith. He was sitting on the counter again. Keith had been trying to explain to him that his mom was gone.

"_Mom's gone, Luke."_

"_She's coming back."_

"_Skywalker, she can't."_

"_Why? Did the car break again? You can fix it. I'll help."_

"_No, Luke, listen to me. Mom can't come back because the car is too broken for us to fix. We can't fix it, Luke, and mom, she can't come back. She can't come back because she had to go."_

"_Go where?"_

"_To live with God."_

"_She lives here."_

"_She's with the angels now."_

"_Like Rocket?"_

"_Yeah, Skywalker. Just like Rocket."_

"_But who gonna take care of me?"_

"_I will."_

_Lucas nodded sadly, and then looked up at Keith. "Who's going to take care of you?"_

Two weeks later, Dan had ripped him out of Keith's arms.

Lucas punched his fist into the wall once, then again, and again, and again. His breath puffed out in font of him. He picked up a charred piece of wood swinging it like a bat at the walls that still stood. He threw the stick and it flew into the room that used to be his mother's.

He upended and overturned the skeleton of the dining room table. The guys who would come to clear out what was left wouldn't have much work to do. He sat down on the floor breathing labored breaths. He kicked a huge chunk of debris, it slid across the floor.

Lucas dropped his head into his hands.

That's how she found him.

The first thing that Peyton noticed was that Lucas's hand was swollen and bleeding.

"_Jesus, Lucas!"_

His hands were red with cold. She didn't even know if he felt what was wrong with his hand or not, but she doubted it. Lucas didn't even know that she was there until he felt a hand on his shoulder. His head come up and he looked at Peyton for long moments without even seeing her. When he reached out to touch his hand, he pulled away.

"Don't."

"Lucas," she didn't know what to say to him. She looked at his hand again. "I think it's broken."

"Probably. What are you doing here, Peyton?" As he got to his feet, the pain in his hand became more noticeable. He attempted to make a fist and decided against it. She stood with him.

"Luke your-"

"What are you doing here?" He asked again.

"You haven't been to school all week. I just needed to know-"

"I'm fine."

"No. No you're not." She spoke almost angrily. "You are not alright."

"You shouldn't have come."

"Why?" Peyton crossed her arms over her chest, so mad now she wanted to swing on him. "When you said that you loved me, did you mean it or was it just a line?"

"Do I need them?"

"_Answer me, Lucas."_ She snapped.

"I meant it." He told her making sure that she saw it, that what he said was not just words. "I meant every word. Don't you dare doubt that."

She poked him in the chest hard enough to break a nail. "That's why I'm here, damn you." She said. "Don't you dare doubt that."

He let her take his hand in both of hers. He rested his head against hers and pulled in a deep breath then smiled.

"Peaches," he said. "They smell good on you."

"Glad you approve." She replied grumpily. "You're hurt." She spoke again her voice serious.

"I'm angry-"

"And you're hurt." She pulled back to look him in the face. "Why won't you let me help you?"

"You can't help with this."

"You don't-"

"I do!" He didn't want to yell at her. He hadn't meant to. "You can't help with this, Peyton. Not with this."

"You tell me, Lucas. You tell me why?"

"I have this...huge weight pressing on my chest and I know what I have to do to get rid of it, but I can't. Tim's dad killed my mom. He set this fire. Keith was inside. He knew it, he watched and didn't do a damn thing to help him. Dan knew it too. He watched the damn roof fall in on him and let his brother to die. Neither one of them lifted a finger to help him."

Lucas shook his head. "I can't let go of that," he told her. "I can't forgive it, and I damn sure can't forget it. There's no way you can help me with that Peyton, no way."

"So what, you're just going to let it destory you? Eat you alive?"

"I may not have a choice."

-

He brushed the snow from the top of the tombstone that read: _"Karen Denise Roe. Mother, Best Friend, Soul Mate."_

"You shouldn't be here, you know." Lucas spoke as he stepped back. "You should be with me and Keith. We were supposed to be a family. We should be. Maybe that's why this has all been so hard for me because I know with all I got that we would have been happy.

"I asked him you know. I asked Keith to be my dad that night. He told me that there was nothing that he wanted more. We'd have been good to each other. You were right," he went on. "You were right when you said that this would be the hardest time of my life. I haven't exactly been handling it well."

He told her about running away more than once when he was younger, the day that he stopped. He told his mother about Nathan, finally leaving Dan's house, his botched emancipation, and Peyton. He smiled when he told his mom about Peyton.

"I love her." He said. "I know I made her mad today. I hurt her, too. All of this mess has already touched her in some way and she's still trying to battle back, make things right with her dad. She's got enough problems. She can't help me with this. Even if I wanted her to.

"I can't forgive them, Mom. I can't. None of this had to happen. None of it."

When he knelt down, Lucas found himself looking at his hand. He needed to get it looked at, but he couldn't leave just yet.

"I don't know how much more that I can take." He admitted. "You told me to save Keith and I did. I tried, but I'm drowning who's going to save me, Mom?"

He didn't know where the words had come from, but now that they were out he couldn't take them back. Who was going to save him?

Did he need to be saved?

Lucas sat down hard in the snow. The pain in his hand wasn't going to be ignored any longer along with a whole lot of things. He hissed out a breath as the dull throb in his hand got bigger. Never more than at that moment did his wish that his mother was there. He needed her so much; it surprised him to know that he may never need her again in life after this. Miss her, most definitely, but not need her.

"I don't dream about you anymore, mom. When I close my eyes, I can't see you. I've forgotten what you face looks like. Don't go away." He told her. "Everything in the house was lost. I didn't mean any of it, I lied. I want the memories. I don't care how much they hurt or how unfair. Just don't…don't go away again. Please."

He felt stupid wating for some kind of answer. Drained, Lucas stood wearily.

"I'm going to let you rest." He told her. "I'm sorry that it took me so long to come and see you that it took all of this. I'm not going to say goodbye because I'll be back." He stared to leave, but stopped, moving back, needing to tell his mother one last thing.

"We're going to rebuild, Mom. It won't ever be the same, but it's a beginning." A cold wind blew across his face. Lucas looked up at the sky, snow falling into his eyes. When he looked back at his mother's grave, there was a small, but sad smile on his face.

"I hear you." He said. "A beginning is a beginning. I'll take what I can get. I love you, Mom."

-

"That doesn't look like happiness to see me, Keith." Dan smiled into his brother's face as he stepped past him into the man's house. "I've come to bring you the good word."

"You're trespassing."

"I thought that you should be the first to know that my son and I have been cleared of any and all charges regarding the fire that burned down Karen's home."

"Lucas's home." Keith corrected. "When Karen died, she left everything that she had to her son. The house included."

The smile left Dan's face. "What are you going to do now, Keith, huh? You can't use this mess anymore, what have you got left?"

Keith shook his head. "You keep making this about me and this war that you want to keep fighting, but it's not. It's about Lucas and what he wants. When are you going to see, Danny?" He said to the younger man. "If Lucas wanted to be back in that place, there would be nothing that I could do to stop him. Your problem is that you have no say. No control. You can't get Lucas to go back with you willingly and no judge will force him. It's done, Dan. Let it be. Let him be."

"I'll never be done, Keith." He told his brother. "I will not let you take my son, my family. It's not done until I say it's done. This is just the beginning. You owe me an apology. Lucas does too."

As Dan spoke those words, the door open and Lucas stepped in from the cold, shaking the snow from his shoulders. His hand was wrapped in a cast; he held a bag from the pharmacy between his fingers. When he saw Dan, the walls went up. He gave away nothing.

"What happened to you now?"

"Why is he here?" Lucas asked Keith, ignoring Dan as if he wasn't even there. It was petty, but it was his only choice. In his present condition, he couldn't wrap his hands around the man's throat the way that he wanted to, the way that Dan deserved.

"He was just leaving."

"Not until I get what I've come for." Dan spoke. "And when that's taken care of, I'll be back for my son. The both of you owe Nathan and myself an apology."

"Fuck that," Lucas finally acknowledged him. "You aren't owed a damn thing. You should be in jail."

"They don't lock up innocent people."

"You're far from innocent and you know it." Lucas's voice shook with anger. "You're an evil, black-hearted, scum-sucking bastard.

"Luke-"

_"Who the hell do you think that you're talking to?"_

"I'm talking to the son-of-a-bitch who left Keith to die in that house." Lucas shot. "I'm talking to the asshole that watched a roof cave in on his own brother and didn't do a damn thing to help save him."

It was a testament to the man that he gave away nothing. When Keith's eyes shot to his brother's face, nothing was exactly what he saw. Nothing at all. Not denial, not confirmation, nothing.

"_You should have died in that fire, Keith and if I had had my way, you would have."_

In that next instant Keith had his brother pressed into a wall, his hand closed over the other man's throat. Dan didn't just sit back and take it. He swung. Keith took the blow and threw a few of his own, slamming his brother's head into the wall behind him hard enough to daze him.

_"No!"_ Keith snarled. "You get back, Lucas and you stay back."

"Keith-"

"You heard me, Skywalker."

He felt the taste of blood in his mouth. He was cut, he could feel that too. He slammed his brother back into the wall twice more. Looking into the man's eyes now, he saw it. The stark cold hate.

"You are a miserable piece of human flesh, Dan Scott, poison." Keith's voice ground out. "Everything you touch that means anything turns to shit. I could squeeze and keep squeezing until you stop breathing. That's what I want to do right now, but that would make me you. Only difference is when I follow through, things get done."

_"Keith,"_ Lucas's voice was hoarse behind him. He wished that he hadn't opened his mouth. Dan's face was turning red from lack of air.

"Keith!"

"Your wife left you," he went on. "She found a woman capable of giving her the love that she needed, love that you could never give. If Nathan is smart enough he'll get his ass off his shoulders and get the hell away from you as soon as God can take him there. I won't let you take you inadequacies out on this boy. Lucas is with me now-"

Dan fought again and Keith pressed tighter, pushing more air from his brother's body not caring if the son-of-a-bitch passed out. It was lenient compared to what his brother had left him to. It wasn't even the worst of what he'd felt in that burning house. Just because he couldn't move didn't mean that he didn't feel.

He didn't care anymore.

_"Keith!"_

Lucas was ignored.

"You will not get him. Hear me. You will not. If Nathan doesn't grow to hate you and every breath you take, you'll have to sit back and watch him dismantles every part of his life, of himself as he becomes worse than you. Everything he touches will fall apart too and it'll be all because of you. Either way you lose."

He let go and Dan fell to the ground coughing wheezing, gasping for air.

"This is the last time I'm going to tell you to get the hell out of my house, the last time I'm going to tell you to stay the hell away from Lucas. You keep coming at me on this, Danny. I want you to, I dare you to. Because I don't give a damn anymore either. You'll get everything I've got. Count on it."

He looked up at his brother letting it all show. "You won't get what's left of my family. Make your own! I'll fight you with my last breath."

"I'll be a waste."

-

The door slammed shut.

"Uncle Keith-"

"You should have told me sooner." He spoke to his nephew. "I don't need you to protect me, Lucas. I need you not to talk all this on your shoulders. Dammit, it's suicide. This…this you should have told me."

"I didn't know how."

"So you just kept quiet?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"How about I'm a damn fool idiot? How about I can't do this by myself? Jesus Christ, Lucas. What the hell are you doing to yourself? Are you trying to run yourself into the ground? You are not freaking Batman, kid! That guy was a pajama wearing moron, and he was human. Do you hear what I'm saying?"

Lucas nodded.

"You keep something like this from me again, and I will kick you ass to the diner and back. Got it? MJ will run you sorry butt up a flag pole and Haley will box your ears. Get the picture?

"Yeah. Yeah. I got it."

He looked at the kid's hand.

They really should get a hospital discount.

"What happened, Luke?"

"Gave the wrecking crew less work to do."

He nodded, understood.

"Good thing there wasn't a chance in hell of me playing again this season. I went to see mom, Keith." Lucas told him.

"I haven't dreamed about her. I'm forgetting what she looks like. There's nothing left. I made the mistake of whishing my memories away…"

"One night," Keith spoke, his voice soft. "I was feeling particularly out of it. My heart hurt me so bad…anyway. I went to the house. It was dark, but it didn't matter. I could see the place with my eyes closed. I remember falling asleep in your mom's bed and being warm when it was cold as hell outside. Next morning I packed every picture I could find, took a few chests from the attic. It's not all lost. What I've got is here, Lucas." Keith told him.

"I put her jewelry in a safe deposit box. That's what she wanted. Do you still have the snapshot?"

Lucas shook his head. "No. I took it out every day. I touched the faces so many times they never should have left my mind. When I was thirteen…" he shrugged. "The faces had already faded. Got to be that it was just a piece of paper." But he'd still kept it. He pulled it from his wallet. More than once since the picture had been faded, Lucas had looked at the piece of paper trying to get his mind to remember what his mother looked like. He remembered her dark hair and eyes, but it wasn't enough.

"What's in the chests?" He finally asked.

"Your mom's old journals, some books, photo albums, Luke."

"You don't have any pictures of her up in here."

Keith shook his head. "No. After she was gone and Dan…" The man's voice trailed off. "Just hurt too much to have her smiling at me when inside I felt dead."

He pulled his own wallet form his back pocket and handed it to Lucas. For long moments he held the warm leather in his hands. Keith cleared his throat once more.

"There were some pictures that I just couldn't take out."

This first was of him and Haley stretched out on the hide-a-bed in the living room laughing like loons at a cartoon on television. The next was of Keith teaching him out to ride a bike around the porch. When he came to the picture of MJ and his mother standing in font of the diner, Lucas stopped.

Fly away dark curls and eyes no lighter. His mind flashed and he was that little kid sitting at the counter in the diner.

_Karen pulled the book from his hands._

"_Lucas Scott, eat your dinner." She told her little boy pressing a kiss to his hair. "The story will be there after your stomach is full..."_

"You won't ever forget what her face looks like again, Luke. Not even I could explain to you how much your mother loved you."

-

Lucas sat on the porch in disbelief. The snow fell in fat flakes sticking to the ground. This was most definitely a winter that he would never forget. His rubbed a hand over tired eyes. He kept them closed pulling in one breath then another. He needed to see Peyton. It wasn't her problem that he was having a problem dealing.

When his eyes came open, there she was, standing next to her car, snow in her hair just watching him. He stood slowly, but didn't leave the porch. Peyton didn't move from where she stood, she took her time taking him in.

She still wanted to tattoo his forehead with her knuckles. He was such a stubborn….He was such…

God he was such a guy!

They all needed to be kicked in the ass and slapped in the head. So what if it was the same thing. He and her father were so much alike, no wonder they didn't get along. She didn't punch out her father, so she wouldn't knock out Lucas.

Peyton slipped her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket as she started up the walk.

"Peyton-"

"Shut up." She told him. "Don't you dare apologize. I won't break if you yell at me. I understand, Lucas, I do. Just don't make it a habit."

They didn't touch. There was still that tenseness between them. She knew that she really had no right to have been mad at him. Epsecially when she wanted to deal with things with her father on her own, but this was different. This was too big for him to deal with on his own. Lucas needed help and he was being a moron-jerk for refusing to see what was right in front of his face.

"If you knew," He started. "If who took your mom away from you…would you be able to forgive them?"

Peyton shook her head. "I can't answer that Lucas, because I don't know. I don't know who took her from us, and I'm not sure that I want to know. It's hell not knowing, but it won't bring her back." She looked down at his hands unconsciously wincing at the cast. She did touch him then, twining her warm fingertips with his cold ones that stuck out from the cast plaster.

"Broken?"

"Barely."

"What the hell does that mean?"

He jerked his shoulder in a shrug. "Won't even be in a cast a month. Scratch." He muttered.

"'Cuse me?"

"It is."

"It's not, Lucas. A scratch would require a band-aid. Your hand is freakin' mummified. Big difference between a cast and a Scooby Doo band-aid." She blew out a breath, then looked up at him. "Does it hurt?"

Scooby Doo band-aid? God he loved it when she got mouthy. The funniest things came out of her mouth. His eyes fell to her lips.

"Lucas?"

Slowly his gazed moved to hers. "What?"

"Does it hurt? Your hand?"

"Not too much. They gave me something for it." He brushed a curl away from her eyes with a finger. "Sometimes I wish that I didn't know." He told her. "But then other times, I'm glad that I do because I can put a face to the person who did this."

She stood on the step below him waiting. In his eyes she could see that there was more that he wanted to say.

"I forgot what she looked like. Even with the dreams. I swore that I could see her so clearly, but then I woke up. Closed my eyes and tried to see her again…Nothing. I knew that she had dark hair and dark eyes. There's a picture of my mom and MJ inside the office at the dinner. I've never been inside, but I know that it's there. I could never make myself go in."

"Why?" Peyton stepped up one step.

He lifted his shoulder again. "When I was thirteen I threw the only picture I had of her in the river at the Rivercourt. Keith gave it to me. By the time I let the river get a hold of it, it was already faded."

"_Whenever you feel scared…"_

"River ruined what was left. I guess I never went in there because I couldn't handle seeing her face and not having her back. I can look at her now." He pulled out the picture that had been at the back of Keith's wallet. It was of an eighteen year old Karen and a newborn Lucas.

"Oh you're bald!" Peyton laughed. "And she's beautiful. So young."

"I remember." He told her. "I can close my eyes and now and see her." He did and Peyton watched him.

"She smelled like cinnamon."

"Don't let it win, Luke. Don't let that feeling be tainted." Peyton said to him. "I'm not telling you to forgive and forget, or to even let go. Just don't let it ruin what's left. Don't let it ruin what you've got back."

"You and your dad?"

"Getting there. Nowhere near the finish."

"There saying that Tim might not even go to jail, that he's going to be put in some hospital." Lucas shook his head. "I'm not sure how I feel about that. He watched Peyton. He didn't run away after the fire got too big, he stayed. I may be able to get passed it one day." Lucas said to her. "But I'll never be able to forgive Dan or Tim.

"Tim's father?"

He pulled in a breath. "He didn't target my mom, but what happened to her didn't have to happen. That's what keeps blaring in my mind, but I believe that one day I can let that go, maybe even forgive him. I'm just not holding my breath."

"Nathan?"

Lucas shook his head. "He's poison just like Dan. I don't want or need his kind of garbage. There's just some people that you don't need in your life. He's one of those people." Life was hard enough as it was and Lucas didn't have it in him to wipe the slate clean, make nice with the person who made it his life's mission to give him hell by any means necessary.

"I never told anyone about Nathan's mom, but he's determined to blame it on me anyway. I'm not surprised. I don't know how Tim found out-"

Kissing him had been the first thing on her mind when she saw sitting on that porch with his eyes closed. Peyton acted on it now. The the rough sound he made in his throat made shivers trek down her spine. Her hands on his face had Lucas pulling Peyton as close as he could get her.

"How long can you stay?" He asked her.

"Long as you want me to."

"We can go inside and pretend to watch movies, or we can stay out here, watch the snow, keep each other warm…"

"Decisions, decisions."

"I don't care what we do." Lucas told her. "My new beginning started when I left my mom today. Having you in it is all I need. Anything else…that's extra."_  
_


End file.
